Book . Gf4

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN
KENTUCKY

A REPORT BY THE

KENTUCKY EDUCATIONAL

COMMISSION

GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD

61 Broadway New Yokk

1921

PUBLIC EDUCATION
IN KENTUCKY

PUBLIC EDUCATION
IN KENTUCKY

A REPORT BY THE

KENTUCKY EDUCATIONAL

COMMISSION

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF

THE COMMISSION
BY THE (JENERAL EDUCATION BOARD

GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD

6l BROADWAY NEW YORK

I92I

LiBflARY OF congress'
RECEIVED

JUN801922

DOCUMENTS D«Vi3»0

(> CONTENTS

M^ PAGE

(^ILetter of Transmittal v

PART I. PRESENT CONDITION OF SCHOOLS

I. Public Education in Kentucky ... 3

11. State Organization and Administration 7

III. Local Organization AND Administration 26

IV. Teachers 52

V. Buildings, Grounds, and Equipment . 71

VI. The Elementary School Term and

Course op Study . ' 86

VII. Pupil Progress and Instruction ... 98

VIII. High Schools 118

IX. School Finances . 132

PART II. NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS

X. Better State Organization and Ad-
ministration 149

XL Better Local Organization and Ad-
ministration 156

XII. Better Trained Teachers .... 169

XIII. Better Financial Support .... 190

Appendix 203

• LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Honorable Edwin P. Morrow

Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Frankfort, Kentucky
The legislature of Kentucky in 1920 enacted a law

providing for a state educational survey. This law is as

follows :

- I. That the Governor be, and is hereby authorized and
empowered to appoint a commission of five persons, to make a
survey of the public educational system of the State, including
all schools and educational institutions supported in whole or in
part by public taxation, for the sake of determining the efficiency
of their work, and to report its findings, with recommendations
for improvement, to the Governor.

- 2. It shall be the duty of said commission to employ ex-
perts, not residents of Kentucky, to make a thorough survey
of the school system of the State as to organization, co-ordi-
nation, administration and general efficiency, and to conduct
such survey in accordance with approved scientific standards of
educational research.

- 3. That the members of said commission shall serve with-
out pay, except actual expenses incurred in the discharge of
their duties. Said commission is hereby authorized and empow-
ered to purchase such supplies and employ such clerical help in
addition to the expert service hereinbefore provided, as may be
necessary for the proper discharge of its duty within the limita-
tion herein prescribed.

- 4. That the commission and its employees shall be accorded
free access to all public records. All persons having charge of
any schools or educational institutions supported wholly or in
part by public funds shall furnish all the information available
and render all the assistance possible in making the survey com-
plete, and any person who wilfully withholds records or informa-
tion within lus possession or obstructs the work of the commis-

vi LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

sion in any way, shall be fined in any sum not less than one
hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars in any court
of competent jurisdiction.

- 5. That there is hereby appropriated out of any money
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated the sum of ten
thousand dollars or as much thereof as may be necessary, for the
purpose of defraying the expense of the survey herelay pro-
posed.

- 6. That on account of the pressing need for an early re-
organization of the school system of the State, an emergency
is hereby declared to exist and this law shall take effect from and
after its passage and approval by the Governor.

In accord with the provisions of this law, you ap-
pointed an Educational Survey Commission composed
of the following five members: W. A. Ganfield, President
of Centre College, Danville; Alex. G. Barret, lawyer,
member of the Louisville Board of Education, Louis-
ville; J. L. Harman, President of Bowling Green Univer-
sity, BowHng Green; C. J. Haydon, President of the
Springfield Board of Education, Springfield; Miss Katie
McDaniel, insurance, formerly County Superintendent
of Christian County, Hopkinsville. The Commission
organized May 11, 1920, electing Dr. Ganfield chairman,
and Mr. Barret secretary.

Pursuant to the provisions of section 2 of the enact-
ment, the Commission secured the assistance of the
General Education Board of New York City in making
the survey. The General Education Board furnished
to the Commission the services of the following staff:
Dr. Frank P. Bachman, local director, Frank L. Shaw,
statistician, and Miss Anna C. Thornblum, secretary.
Dean M. E. Haggerty, College of Education, University
of Minnesota, advised on the testing program.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL vii

The State of Kentucky appropriated the sum of
$10,000, of which $8,000 was used in part payment of the
expenses of field work, and $1,000 in part payment of
printing the report. In addition to providing the survey
staff, the General Education Board contributed the
sum of $15,000.

Fifteen months were devoted to the survey. During
this time Dr. Bachman visited sixty-six counties and
made a careful study of the conditions in thirty-three
of them, and also studied conditions in about half of the
principal cities of the state. He had the active co-op-
eration of the educators of Kentucky, including repre-
sentatives from the faculties of the colleges, normal
schools, and the University of Kentucky, members of the
state department of education, and county and city
superintendents.

Standard tests or examinations were given to the
school children in nine representative counties and in
fifteen cities. Fifteen thousand seven hundred pupils
were examined in the fifth, seventh, and eighth grades,
and nearly 59,000 test papers were marked and the
results tabulated. Data on pupil progress were col-
lected from these same nine counties, and from 222 graded
school districts and 47 cities, or from a total of 136,828
children. Information was collected on the training
of 11,712 of the 13,563 teachers, or 86 per cent, of the
total number.

Questionnaires were sent to all city superintendents,
graded school principals, and county superintendents,

viii LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

asking for information on school finances, length of school
day and term, consolidated schools, provisions for super-
vision, attendance officers, medical inspection, school
nurses, office equipment, and clerical assistance. Infor-
mation of many kinds was also collected from the records
of the state department of education, school laws, and
other sources.

The Commission desires to acknowledge with sincere
appreciation and gratitude the generous professional and
financial assistance of the General Education Board.
We further record our grateful acknowledgment of the
helpful counsel and advice of Dr. Wallace Buttrick,
President of the General Education Board, and of Dr.
Abraham Flexner, Secretary of the Board. Dr. Flex-
ner also gave liberally of his time in perfecting the
report, and made several visits to the state to counsel
with the survey staff and the Commission.

We would further express appreciation of the splendid
co-operation and helpful service rendered by the Hon.
George Colvin, State Superintendent of Pubhc Instruc-
tion, and Dr. John W. Carr, Director of Health Educa-
tion.

Members of the Commission have served without pay,
being reimbursed only for the actual expenses involved
in the discharge of their duties. The $i,ooo reserved
for this purpose will more than provide for their expenses.

The Commission has not outlined plans or recom-
mendations that are impossible of attainment. The
suggestions and recommendations offered are practicable

■ LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL ix

and within reach. We venture to hope that the find-
ings of this survey will aid the citizens and the legisla-
ture of the Commonwealth in providing a school system
that will ultimately afford to all the children of the state
"the power that knowledge gives."

Very respectfully,
(Signed) W. A. Ganfield, Chairman .

Alex. G. Barret

J. L. Harman

C. J. Haydon

Katie McDaniel

PART I

PRESENT CONDITION OF SCHOOLS

CHAPTERS I-IX

Public Education in Kentucky

I. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

EDUCATION is the sole hope of democracy. "A
popular government," wrote James Madison,
"without popular information, or the means of
acquiring it, is but the prologue to a farce or a tragedy,
or probably both. A people who mean to be their own
governors must arm themselves with the power that
knowledge gives . ' '

How well has Kentucky armed itself "with the power
that knowledge gives? "

Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, one of the foremost authorities
in the field of public education, has recently published a
comparative study of the ef&ciency of state school
systems. According to Dr. Ayres, Kentucky ranked
thirty-fifth in 1890, thirty-sixth in 1900, fortieth in 19 10,
and forty-fifth in 191 8. That is, during the last four
decades Kentucky has steadily fallen behind, when com-
pared with the other states and territories. In ilHteracy
Kentucky ranked thirty-sixth in 1900, in 1910, and in
1920.

What is the explanation? Physically, the state is
highly favored. Of its 40,000 square miles, 10,000 are

3

4 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

surpassed in fertility by no other land either in America
or Europe; 22,000 more, not quite equal to the best, are
still excellent; only about 7,000 square miles are of in-
ferior quaHty. "It is doubtful," writes Shaler, "if an
equally good showing can be made for any other state in
the Mississippi Valley, and there are few regions in the
world where so large an area with so little waste land can
be found." Coal, iron, and stone abound. The eastern
coal district, "somewhat less valuable than that of
Pennsylvania, is exceeded in value by that of no other
state." The deposits of iron ore are outranked only by
those of five or six other states. Thus the state is admi-
rably adapted to agriculture and is liberally endowed
with fuel, iron, and stone.

Not the niggardliness of nature, but the mischance of
history holds the state back. Peopled in the first in-
stance by emigrants from Virginia, the state inherited
the slave-holding system. Social organization was
distinctly aristocratic. Manual toil was stigmatized.
Kentuckians were generally engaged in activities that
needed little capital and gave little employment or out-
look to white labor. The coal and iron lay untouched
below the soil, and emigration passed Kentucky by.
Even to-day the conservatism of the state discourages
well-trained, progressive, and adventurous youth. The
handicaps under which Kentucky suffers and has suffered
are man-made and can be removed by men.

Poor education is the inevitable result of the conditions
described. The political leaders of ante-bellum Kentucky

Oldest Type of One-Room Rural SchooHiouses

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY 5

were, not thinking of a whole state peopled by a vigorous
and industrious race armed with the power that knowl-
edge gives. An excellent Anglo-Saxon stock thus largely
lost, as far as public education is concerned, the first
century of its history. Public schools got but a feeble
start; higher education, until very recent years well-
nigh ignored by the state, was provided by a few small
colleges, which, invaluable to the students attending
them, were entirely inadequate to meet the situation.
The general level of education was thus low, and an ill-
educated population neither desires education keenly
nor does it produce the wealth needed to support the
schools on which the hope of better things depends. Thus
social sluggishness accounts for the defects of the school
system; and an inferior school system prolongs the
period of social and industrial inertia.

Fortunately there is evidence that a movement in the
right direction has started. Public interest in education
is being aroused and various organizations are demand-
ing higher standards and better conditions. This new
interest found expression in the enlightened and progres-
sive educational legislation of 1920. These measures,
supported by both parties, provided, among other things,
for the election of county boards of education by the
people, for an increase of mandatory county taxes, for
better school attendance, and for the state certification
of teachers. Already the sums available for the common
schools have greatly increased, rising from $8,309,000
for current expenses in 1917-1918 to about $10^000,000

6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

in 1920-192 1. There has apparently been a correspond-
ing improvement in school attendance.

Fundamental social changes are coming about. The
old order, which began to disintegrate after the Civil
War, has now practically disappeared; modern demo-
cratic conceptions of social and industrial organization
are in the air. They have not yet completely and se-
curely established themselves; they are far from dominat-
ing the political and educational policy of the state; but
they have found a voice and will assuredly prevail. The
present survey, made at the instance of the constituted
authorities, with the support of the progressive leaders
of the state, is a contribution to this end.

The report endeavors to depict fairly and thoroughly
the educational conditions in the state. It will describe
the existing organization and, building upon progress
recently made, will suggest the next steps that are at the
moment desirable and feasible. It is futile to discuss
ideals. An educational Utopia cannot be brought
about in Kentucky at once. At most measures can be
taken which, themselves an improvement, will facilitate
advance. That done, the rest will have to be left to the
patient effort and devoted self-sacrifice of successive
generations.

II. STATE ORGANIZATION AND
ADMINISTRATION

KENTUCKY entered the Union in 1792; not until
1908 did the laws of the state actually require all
■ local units to establish schools and levy taxes
for their maintenance. So recently have the people of
the state realized the full importance of public education
in a democracy !

The slow movement which thus culminated a dozen
years ago may be briefly sketched. Very early in its
history, public lands were appropriated for the establish-
ment of seminaries and colleges. No distinction was
made between public and private institutions — the state
gave impartially to both — and no thought was taken at
this time of the prior importance of common schools.
These were first legally recognized in 1838. The state
had received — like other states — a gift from the federal
government; it undertook to apportion the income from
$850,000 — something over one-half its share — to com-
mon schools; but it did not undertake to require, to
support, or to supervise public education.

The constitution of 1850 declared the principal of the
common school fund to be inviolate, but laid upon the
general assembly no mandate to establish schools. The

7

8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

general assembly therefore consistently declined to levy
taxes for school purposes. Nevertheless, on four differ-
ent occasions — in 1849, 1855, 1869, and 1882 — the people
by large majorities approved successive propositions to
levy state taxes for school purposes. Thus, the income
of the common schools was increased by popularly im-
posed levies, amounting in the aggregate to twenty-two
cents on each $100 of taxable property.

The mandate requiring the general assembly to
"provide for an ej6&cient system of common schools
throughout the state" and to appropriate to the com-
mon schools the income from the common school fund
and any sum which may be produced for purposes of
common school education by taxation or otherwise, first
appeared in the constitution of 1891. Even so, the
general assembly on its own initiative and without a
direct mandate from the people did not levy a dol-
lar of public taxes in support of public schools until
1904^ — thirteen years after being empowered to do so.
Not until 1893 did the statute books contain a single line
of legislation actually requiring the establishment of
schools and the levying of local taxes in support thereof,
and not until 1908 was this mandatory legislation made
general for all local units.

The legislation of 1893 and 1908 transformed a volun-

^ There is one possible exception to this statement. The general
assembly of its own accord levied in 1880 a tax of one-half of one cent on
each $100 of assessed value of property for the support of the Agricultural
and Mechanical College.

iriiree- Window Rural Schoolhouses, Without Porch or Cloakroom

STATE ORGANIZATION 9

tary into a compulsory system, and thus registered an
entirely new conception of the state's relation to public
education. Prior to 1893 every community decided for
itself by majority vote whether or not a public school
should be established. Nowadays not only common
schools, but also high schools, must be maintained. Simi-
larly, the community used to decide by vote whether
or not it would levy a local school tax; nowadays local
school taxes must be levied up to a fixed minimum.
Then, any kind of schoolhouse might be built; now, only
such schoolhouses may be erected as are approved by the
superintendent of public instruction. Then, state school
funds might be expended for any school purpose; these
may now be expended only for the payment of teachers'
salaries, and all expenditures, irrespective of whether the
fimds are derived from local or from state taxation, are
subject to inspection by the superintendent of pubHc
instruction or his agents. Formerly, parents might send
their children to school or not, as they pleased; now they
must send them, under penalty of law, for the full time the
schools are in session. The trustees used to certificate
the teachers for their respective schools; now teachers
are certificated by a state board of examiners.^ The
trustees likewise used to fix the length of term; it must
now be at least six months, and the statute looks for-
ward to further extensions. The trustees formerly
selected the textbooks; a state commission now selects

^A few state and approved private higher institutions, as well as city
boards of education, are also authorized to certificate teachers.

lo PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

them. They prescribed the course of study; this is now
prepared by the state board of education. The state
board of education also prescribes general rules and
regulations for the government of all schools, and the
superintendent of public instruction is empowered to see
that they are observed.

The options originally exercised by local authorities
have thus been abolished, and most of their former
powers transferred to the state board of education, the
superintendent of public instruction, or other state
boards or officials. Obviously, if these large powers are
to be effective, the central educational authority would
have to be reorganized accordingly. It must be so
equipped as to exercise intelligently the functions with
which it has been lately endowed. But this has not
been done. Though the duties and responsibilities of
the state department have become vastly greater, the
department remains to-day substantially what it was
when its duties and responsibilities were nominal.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

The schools of Kentucky — elementary and high — are
organized as a single system, over which preside a state
board of education and a superintendent of public in-
struction. These officials deal with educational matters
of general interest to the people of the state. Similarly,
the public schools of a county, exclusive of those of
graded and city school districts, form a subordinate
local system, presided over by a county board of educa-

STATE ORGANIZATION ii

tion, which deals with educational matters of particular
interest to the county. Two other subordinate and
local systems — the graded school districts and the cities
. — are independent of the county system, though a part
of the state system. Boards of trustees or boards of
education have charge of the schools in the respective
graded school or city school districts. The central
authority is meant to give unity to the educational effort
of the state; the local authority is meant to promote
local interest, pride, and initiative.

Kentucky's state board of education was created in
1838, and was then and still is composed of ex officio
members — the secretary of state, the attorney-general,
and the superintendent of public instruction. Its com-
position is unfortunate, and its powers have never been
such as to enable it to make itself effective. It is au-
thorized to hold funds and property for the benefit of the
common schools; prescribe rules and regulations for the
government of the schools; make courses of study; and
recommend suitable books for district libraries. But
these duties are largely nominal. There are, for exam-
ple, no funds or property to hold; and prescribing rules
and regulations for the government of the schools, courses
of study, and lists of suitable books for district Hbraries
are technical matters in which an ex officio board has
taken and could take only a perfunctory or ineffectual
interest.

In dealing with the state board of education, the legis-
lature has not pursued a consistent policy. At one time

12 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the general assembly confers powers, at another takes
them away. For example, until 1852 the state board
participated in the distribution of the common school
fund, but this function was thereafter exercised by the
state superintendent and the state auditor. Between
1852 and 1893 the board recommended textbooks for use
in the common schools, but was thereafter entirely re-
lieved of this duty. Similarly, the board for many years
prescribed blanks and forms for all school records and
reports, but in 1893 this authority was transferred to the
state superintendent.

Meanwhile other boards have been created to share or
altogether take over functions that properly belong to a
state board of education. To illustrate: The state
board of education prescribes rules and regulations gov-
erning high school certificates; issues high school certifi-
cates to graduates of higher institutions within and
without the state; grants certificating powers to private
institutions doing teacher-training work of a satisfactory
grade; extends, for life, certificates of teachers having
twenty years of experience. Yet the real power of cer-
tification is vested in the state board of examiners,
which is practically an independent body.

Again, a properly organized state board of education
would supervise teacher-training institutions, handle
all matters concerning vocational education, and select
textbooks for the public schools; but Kentucky, splitting
up its educational administration, possesses four differ-
ent boards of normal school regents; a state board of

STATE ORGANIZATION 13

vocational education, which includes the members of the
state board of education, created as recently as 1918; and
an independent state textbook commission, created in
1 9 14 to select textbooks.

But whatever its powers, an ex officio state board of
education cannot be effective. A man elected to one
office may not have the interest and seldom has the time
requisite to the performance of an entirely different set of
duties. The secretary of state and the attorney-general
may, as members of the state board of education, give
the state superintendent casual assistance, but they
have their own special tasks for the performance of
which they are responsible to the people, and these will
and should receive their first attention. Moreover, they
know that in the long run the people hold the superin-
tendent of public instruction responsible for the conduct
of the schools, and they cannot make themselves an-
swerable for his administration.

The political character of the board also prevents it
from assuming a position of influence. Each of its
members is nominated by a political party, elected by
party vote, and is expected to be loyal to party interests.
Under these circumstances, whatever they do, they are
likely to be regarded as partisan. Perhaps this fact, as
much as lack of public sentiment, explains the reluc-
tance of the general assembly to entrust to the board
duties and functions that properly belong to it, and ac-
counts for the creation of other boards — such as boards
of normal school regents, state board of examiners, state

14 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

textbook commission, state board of vocational educa-
tion, etc. — ^which divide both authority and responsibil-
ity and render effective administration impossible.

Again, the state board has, since 1891, lacked con-
tinuity. Every four years sees a complete change in
personnel, and with it at least the possibility of a
complete change in educational policies. A new
administration comes into office without plans or
poHcies of its own, and as a rule goes out before policies
and plans can be developed. The public schools of the
state have thus been left to drift. No official is in posi-
tion to propose to the legislature or the people a poHcy
which looks ahead over a space of years ; chaos and back-
wardness are the inevitable consequences.

The present situation as respects the state board may
be summarized as follows: The state board has recently
assumed large educational responsibilities, financial and
supervisory, and is without any proper agency to meet
them. The state board of education is impotent because
of its political complexion, its ex officio composition, and
its short tenure. The state should have a properly con-
stituted board, invested with proper powers — including
those now exercised by the normal school regents, the
state textbook commission, state board, of examiners,
and vocational education board. The state can neither
form nor pursue a coherent educational poHcy in any
other way. The consolidation suggested would ob-
viously create a strong educational department at
Frankfort; but, as will appear from suggestions to be

STATE ORGANIZATION 15

made as we proceed, local units will retain all the powers
and all the opportunity that they need.

STATE TEXTBOOK COMMISSION

The work of the boards created to share functions
properly belonging to a state board of education will be
discussed in other connections. By way of illustrating
the situation a brief account will be given here of the
state textbook commission.

The state has tried almost every conceivable way of
selecting textbooks for rural schools.^ Up to 1852
selection was left to parents, in consequence of which
there were almost as many textbooks in a school as
there were children. Since 1852 six different methods
of selection have been in vogue: (i) Between 1852 and
1873, selection by the district trustees for their respective
schools from lists recommended by the state board of
education; (2) from 1873 to 1893, selection by the county
board of examiners and the county superintendent from
lists recommended by the state board of education;
(3) from 1893 to 1904, selection by the county board of
examiners freed from all state restrictions ; (4) from 1904
to 1910, selection by a county textbook commission from
a single list agreed upon between the several county
textbook commissions and a state textbook commis-
sion; (5) between 1910 and 19 14, reversion to the

^In general, the selection of textbooks for graded and city school dis-
tricts has consistently remained in the hands of the respective boards of
trustees or boards of education.

i6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

county textbook commission freed from all state re-
strictions, practically the method in vogue from 1904
to 1910; (6) since 1914 there has been a single list for all
rural schools prepared by the state textbook commission.
With all these attempts, no satisfactory method has
yet been devised for selecting textbooks for rural schools.
There is widespread opposition to a single state com-
pulsory list, and it is said to be a matter of common
knowledge that there was corruption in the last state
adoption. This zig-zag experience, capricious changing
from one kind of machinery to another without genuine
improvement, is fairly typical of the state's educational
history. Nothing could more clearly illustrate the
chaos that results from the absence of trained and con-
tinuous leadership. The problem of textbook selection
is in itself not difficult. A properly constituted state
board of education would, as we shall in a moment see,
have as its executive officer a state superintendent. The
state superintendent, in co-operation with representative
educators chosen by himself, would form a textbook com-
mission. The commission would prepare a list of text-
books, containing four or five suitable texts in each
subject, fix the retail price of the same with the pub-
lishers, and present the list to the state board of education
for adoption, the state board having the right to reject
textbooks on the proposed list, but not to add them.
Counties and cities would each, in that event, set up a
similar machinery. The county superintendent or the
city superintendent, as the case might be, with an ad-

u

^r^'^'"' '

^'^ iL'.r'it r

Three-Window Rural Schoolhouses, Without Cloakroom, but with
Front Porch

STATE ORGANIZATION 17

visory committee of county or city teachers, would make
a selection from the state list and submit the list so
selected to the county or city board of education for
approval. This plan is peculiarly adapted to Kentucky,
since it harmonizes the two methods which have so long
conflicted with each other, namely, the single compul-
sory state list and the independent local list.

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

The law of 1838 creating a state board of education
provided, also, for a superintendent of public instruction,
appointed by the governor for a term of two years. In
1850 the superintendent became a constitutional officer,
elected by the people for four years; the constitution of
1891 prohibited his re-election.

The duties of the first state superintendents were
chiefly clerical. They compiled the returns from the
school census, assisted in apportioning state school funds,
collected data on school enrollment and attendance,
and made an annual report to the general assembly. Not
until 1864 were they required to give full-time service or
to maintain an ofiice at Frankfort. In fact, nearly all
the early state superintendents were ministers holding
active pastorates, who gave to the schools only such
time as they could spare from their religious duties.

Latterly the responsibihties of the state superintendent
have been increased. The clerical work of the office has
mounted by leaps and bounds. It now involves the
collection and tabulation of many kinds of educational

i8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

and financial data, the answering of thousands of letters,
the issuing of scores of circulars, the preparation of
numerous forms and blanks, and the compilation and
publication of a number of bulletins annually. The
office also prepares and publishes elementary and high
school courses of study, special courses for physical edu-
cation, agricultural education, home economics, etc., as
well as programs for special exercises, such as for Tem-
perance Day and Thrift Day, and issues sample plans for
schoolhouses.

The superintendent is required not only to supervise
the accounting and expenditure of all public school funds,
approve all plans for school buildings, interpret the
school laws and report violations thereof, but also to
supervise every phase of public school instruction, in-
cluding the classification of high schools. He appoints
the state board of examiners, of which he is also a mem-
ber; is a member of the state textbook commission,
member of the vocational education board, member of
the board of trustees of the University of Kentucky,
member and chairman of the boards of trustees of both
the Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky Normal
Schools, and member and chairman of the board of the
Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute.

There has been a corresponding increase in the com-
plexity of administrative problems confronting the super-
intendent. The small district with its single school has
given way to county, graded school, and city districts;
the one-teacher school is being displaced by large con-

STATE ORGANIZATION 19

solidated and even larger city schools; a complex pro-
gram, including science, physical education, home-
making, farming, etc., has succeeded the three R's; and
low local requirements for teachers' certificates have
been displaced by state standards and state examinations.

The state superintendent has thus become an impor-
tant officer. His responsibilities, covering in theory the
entire field of public education, call for a man of high
executive and administrative ability, technical training,
large experience, and genuine devotion to education.

The mere recital of the state superintendent's functions
and opportunities shows that he should be absolutely
independent of political influences and considerations.
Yet the office of state superintendent in Kentucky is
to-day in partisan politics. The state superintendent is
nominated on a party platform and elected by party
vote. Expediency, not fitness, almost inevitably de-
termines the nomination. The selection of a competent
man is an accident. For educators of proved abihty
and reputation cannot be expected to stand on a party
platform, to submit to party pressure, or to go through
partisan elections.

Thus nominated, the state superintendent is called
upon to pay his part of the campaign expenses, to sub-
ordinate himself to the party program, to participate
in the campaign, and to conduct his department with an
eye to party interests. Party poHtics enter into the
employment of janitors and clerks, and professional as-
sistants can hardly be selected solely on the basis of

20 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

merit. Policies and plans for the improvement of the
schools must fit in with the party program, and must meet
the approval of party leaders.

Moreover, Kmitation of service to a single term of four
years has various unfortunate results. It increases the
difficulty of getting a competent superintendent. It
makes continuity of poHcy impossible. It lessens the su-
perintendent's influence both with the people and the
general assembly, particularly toward the end of his
term, for why should the legislature bother with proposi-
tions which will in all probability be modified or entirely
discarded by the incoming official?

Finally, the state superintendent is poorly paid, and
his office, located in the new capitol, lacks ahnost every-
thing it needs except space and furniture. For a short
period prior to 1880, the superintendent's salary was
$3,000. In 1880 this was reduced to $2,500, and has
since stood at that figure. However, in 19 12 the super-
intendent became special school inspector, with an allow-
ance of $1,500, so that in his dual capacity he now re-
ceives an annual salary of $4,000. The salary of the
superintendent of public instruction in North CaroHna
is $5,000; in Maryland, $8,000; in New Jersey, $10,000.

Between 1893 and 1906 there was no provision for
paying the superintendent's expenses while visiting
schools or performing any of his official duties. Even
now, his travehng allowance is limited to a maximum of
$500, although he has an indefinite allowance in his ca-
pacity as special school inspector.

Four-Window Rural Schoolhouses, Without Cloakroom or Porch

STATE ORGANIZATION 21

As late as 1 9 10, the clerical and professional force of the
office consisted of the superintendent and three clerks,
with a total payroll of $5,850, where it had stood since
1893. In 1920, the total appropriated by the state
for clerical, stenographic, and professional assistance,
including the superintendent's salary, was $19,500.
Any two of a dozen of the superintendent's duties — for
example, supervision of schools, inspection of school ex-
penditures, approval of schoolhouse plans, classification
of high schools, preparation of the biennial report, etc.
— ^would, if properly performed, exhaust this entire
appropriation.

With inadequate assistance and defective organization,
the state superintendent is expected to direct and super-
vise the schools, and to have at hand in usable form
reliable information about them. Accordingly, he asks an-
nually for detailed information on enrollment, attendance,
teachers' salaries, school expenditures, and other impor-
tant items. The facts returned by local officers are seldom
complete and often unreliable. The superintendent is
unable to check and verify the returns. They are gen-
erally tabulated as they come in, and published, at great
expense, without analysis or interpretation, although there
is scarcely a table in the biennial report which does not
omit returns from some county, graded school district,
or city. To illustrate: In the report for 1917-1918, in
the table on county fund distribution, data from nine
counties were omitted; to fill out the table, the returns
of the preceding year were used. In the same volume

22 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the distribution of state funds for 1918-19,19 is given as
$3,533,000, whereas the auditor gives it as $4,010,000.
We were unable to find in the office of the state superin-
tendent complete or reliable information or data on a
single important feature of the public schools.

A division of records and reports should be estab-
lished to remedy these defects. The biennial report,
almost the bulkiest published in the Union, could then
be reduced to one-fourth its present size, and data of
inestimable value could be collected and tabulated for
the use of the department, of the general assembly, and
the general public.

In 1 912 a meagre provision was made for the supervi-
sion of public school expenditures. Its necessity and
importance were emphasized by the many financial
irregularities and census-padding activities uncovered.
But it is impossible to secure competent men to carry on
the work at $1,000 a year, the maximum salary fixed
by the law. Consequently, the present superintendent
has appointed no assistant inspectors. Occasional in-
spections, however, conducted by members of the office
staff, show the need to be as great as ever.

Again, the state superintendent is responsible for the
educational supervision of the schools. But the state has
never appropriated a dollar for educational supervision
other than for the state superintendent's salary. In
1 9 10, the superintendent then in office applied to the
General Education Board. Its present annual appro-
priation of $21,400 for salaries, clerical assistance, and

STATE ORGANIZATION 23

traveling expenses enables the superintendent to employ
an inspector of high schools, two supervisors of white
elementary schools, and a supervisor of colored schools.
These supervisors have been invaluable. They have been
leaders in every forward educational movement; they
have co-operated with local school officials ; and they have
been missionaries in the development of popular interest
in public education. There is, however, a growing de-
mand for a new type of supervisory assistance. Coun-
ties, graded school districts, and cities require a careful
study of their respective local situations, and assistance
in formulating plans, covering long periods, for the
improvement of their schools. To meet these new de-
mands, an additional high school supervisor and an
additional elementary school supervisor ought to be
provided.

More recently, through the temporary aid of federal
funds, amounting to $6,500 annually, the department
was furnished with a supervisor of health education.
The response of the schools shows that this work is
both needed and appreciated, and permanent arrange-
ments should be made for its continuance. Also, the
vocational education board now provides, from federal
funds at an annual cost of $7,868, the department
with a director of agriculture, a supervisor of trades
and industries, and a supervisor of home economics.

If further illustration were needed to emphasize the
inadequate support of the superintendent's office, the
following could be cited: Almost from the founding of

24 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the public school system, the state superintendent has
been required to prepare and publish suitable school-
house plans, and the general assembly of 1920 imposed
on him the further duty of approving all plans for pro-
posed school buildings. The full time of a school archi-
tect with proper assistance is needed if this work is to
be done well, and the expenditure would be amply justi-
fied by the superior character of schoolhouse construc-
tion. Yet the general assembly has never appropriated
a penny for the purpose.

Assuredly, the state superintendent is expected to
"make bricks without straw." The large powers which
he possesses on paper are reduced to nominal form by the
dissipation of authority through various boards, by the
conditions under which he is chosen to office, by the
shortness of his tenure, and by the lack of an adequate
staff.

SUMMARY

To summarize: The state now assumes responsibility
for public education. But the educational machinery
of the state is antiquated and inadequate. The state
board of education, by reason of its makeup, is incapable
of performing the functions that naturally fall to such
a body. The state superintendent, whatever his char-
acter, personality, or training, is handicapped by party
connections, Hmited tenure, and inadequate financial
support. If the schools are to be effectively adminis-
tered, the present ex officio board of education must be

STATE ORGANIZATION 25

replaced by a properly constituted board; the state su-
perintendent must be taken out of partisan politics, the
office must be placed on a professional basis, and its sup-
port must be made commensurate with its responsibil-
ities and duties.

III. LOCAL ORGANIZATION AND
ADMINISTRATION

THE state and the local units must co-operate
if a sound educational system is to develop. The
part that the state plays has already been indi-
cated. It should set up and enforce everywhere minimum
educational standards, and toward this end should con-
tribute a reasonable amount of money raised by general
taxation. The local community should show its pride
and interest by pushing ahead beyond the minimum
standards set up by the state. Realizing that the edu-
cation of its children is the most profitable investment
that can be made, the community should desire better
school buildings, better trained teachers, a longer school
term, more and better school supervisors than the state
law actually compels. To procure these the community
must tax itself beyond the required minimum; and under
competent leadership it will do so, for men can readily be
made to see that every dollar spent in education (juickly
reproduces itself many times in a vigorous and industrious
people. Efficient schools require, therefore, as we have
pointed out in the preceding chapter, ' continuous and
progressive central leadership; they also require local
interest, local initiative, and local sacrifices.

36

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 27

COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

The county is at once the oldest and the newest unit
of local organization, for between 1838 and 1856 a nomi-
nal form of county organization was maintained. Each
county had an appointed board of school commissioners
— first five, later three ; but their powers and duties were
inconsiderable. They were authorized to divide the
county into districts; to give notice of and supervise
school elections; to apply for and receive the state school
funds due the county; acting with the district trustees,
they originally examined the teachers, but subsequently
delegated this important function to other persons.
The duties were thus not enough to keep the board alive.
For this, or some other reason, in 1856 the school com-
missioners were displaced by a single appointed commis-
sioner, who, in 1884, became the county superintendent.

The abolition of the county board in 1856 marked the
passing for the time being of the idea of central county
control, and this idea did not reappear until 1908, when
the county board of education was re-established. The
new county board was a clumsy affair, being made up
of the chairmen of the several division boards, of which
there were four, six, or eight in each county.

Between 1838 and 1908 the district was therefore the
real rural school unit in Kentucky. The county com-
missioners or county superintendent divided the county
into districts containing as nearly as possible 100 children
of school age. Thereafter the management of the schools

28 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

was practically in the hands of the district. The district
voted a school, fixed its own taxes, and elected its own
trustees, who constructed the schoolhouse, employed
the teacher, fixed her salary, and determined the length
of the term — in short, managed the school. Many of the
serious ills from which Kentucky schools have suffered
grew, as we shall see, out of this district organization.

The law of 1908, which re-established the county
board, was a tardy recognition of the fact that the
county, not the district, must be the local rural educa-
tional unit. No system of education can be built up
out of independent districts. The county is the natural
unit for taxation, and while small enough to engage local
interest, it is large enough to support graded schools, a
county high school, supervisors, attendance officers —
all the several factors that are indispensable to organized
educational effort. It was therefore sound statesman-
ship to consolidate the separate rural districts into the
county unit in charge of a county board of education.

The main duty imposed on the county board of educa-
tion was the management of school finances and the
school plant. Up to this time, as stated above, each
district had been responsible for its own schoolhouse.
Schoolhouses were sometimes built by a special district
tax, sometimes by a special district poll tax, but more
often by private subscription. Occasionally a district
had a good school building. More often the school-
house was a wretched hovel, unworthy the name.

With the county board of education re-established,

Four- Window Rural Schoolhouses, with Porch, but Without Cloakroom

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 29

almost every general assembly added to its financial
powers. A far-reaching expansion was the provision of
the law of 1912 authorizing the county board to combine
the state school and county school funds, and to dis-
tribute them to the districts according to their needs.
The employment of teachers remained in the hands of
district boards of trustees, but teachers were to be paid
according to a salary schedule adopted by the county
board of education, approved by the state board. Thus,
the old method of apportioning state school funds di-
rectly to the districts was abolished. The small district
was now on the same footing as the large district; teachers
of equal qualifications received the same salary, and
the scramble for the large district, with the large salary,
which extended even to paying a premium to the trus-
tees for a particularly large school and to political log-
rolling to secure the election of a given trustee favorable
to the employment of a given teacher, became a thing of
the past.

The objects for which the county board might spend
county school funds were at the same time multiplied.
In 191 2 the county board was authorized to employ
rural school supervisors and to pay the necessary expenses
incurred by them and the county superintendent in the
performance of their official duties.^ Thus, by 1920, the
financial powers of the county board of education were

^In 191 2 counties were also permitted to vote county bonds for the
erection of schoolhouses, but thus far no county has voted such bonds.
We do not include these provisions in our discussion of the county boards
of education because a separate commission was authorized to handle

30 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

ample to enable them to provide a uniform and efficient
system of county schools.

The re-established county board of education was also
vested with certain educational responsibilities, which
were gradually increased. They were required by the
law of 1908 to establish at least one county high school,
and authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for
the management of the same, adopt a suitable course of
study, employ the necessary teachers, fix their salaries,
and dismiss them for cause. The law of 1908 conferred
on the county board the power to change the boundaries
of old subdistricts and to lay off new subdistricts ; that of
191 2, to consolidate subdistricts and to fill vacancies
in trusteeships; and that of 1914 extended the board's
authority over the entire county, since which date no
new graded school districts might be formed without
its approval. Thus, one by one, the county board was
endowed with most of the functions properly belonging
to it. But meanwhile, as has already been pointed out,
the board was itself clumsily constituted, being made up
of division chairmen, each naturally more interested in
the division from which he came than in the county as a
whole. Thus, the district spirit permeated the county
organization.

This defect was corrected in 1920 by the new county

unit law, one of the few pieces of constructive educational

the funds derived from such county bond issues. The creation of this in-
dependent commission is a further illustration of the state's tendency to
establish separate boards or commissions to perform duties that properly
belong to the original board.

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 31

legislation to be found in the entire history of the state.
This statute created county boards of five members, to
be elected by the voters outside of graded school and
city school districts. The people thus received for the
first time a direct voice in the management of school af-
fairs from the standpoint of the county as the unit.
At the same time, the law of 1920 not only extended the
financial powers of the county board, making special
provisions for a county school budget and an increased
compulsory county school tax, but also placed in its
hands the entire educational management of rural schools,
including the appointment of the county superintendent
as its executive officer.

The first election under the new law took place in
November, 1920, the new members taking office January
1, 192 1. In places there naturally exists some discontent
with the members chosen, and with their first important
act, the selection of a county superintendent. No such
change could possibly be carried through without a cer-
tain amount of dissatisfaction. The remedy lies, how-
ever, not in a change of the law — the law is based on
sound and well-accepted principles — but in a wiser se-
lection of county school board members by the people.
The very exercise of the privilege will of itself tend to
bring about the desired results.

THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT

The efficiency of a county system depends largely on
the executive officer, the county superintendent. The

32 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

title "county superintendent" was not legally em-
ployed until 1884, although county superintendents had
existed since 1856, when the single commissioner took
the place of the old board of common school commission- .
ers.

Old as this ofi&ce is, it is to-day one of the weakest
spots in the state public school system. The difficulty
is not a lack of power. The single common school com-
missioner assumed all the clerical and supervisory duties
of the board of commissioners which he displaced. He
divided the county into districts, called for the state
school funds and distributed them to the districts, re-
ceived reports from district trustees, and made reports
to the state superintendent; appointed one or more per-
sons who, along with himself, issued teachers' certifi-
cates, visited schools, and advised teachers. From time
to time additional responsibilities were imposed. For
example, in 1870, it became his duty to decide all ques-
tions of dispute with respect to the common schools, and
to organize and conduct teachers' institutes. In 1884
he was authorized to condemn unfit and insanitary
schoolhouses. At this time, also, he was charged with
the handling of state school funds. In 1886, he was
authorized to select textbooks, sharing this responsi-
bihty, after 1893, with the county board of examiners,
and between 19 10 and 19 14, with the county textbook
commission. Though until 1920 he lacked the power
to appoint and assign teachers, he was, if qualified,
nevertheless in position to do effective work in many

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 33

directions. But the superintendency was a failure, and
for obvious reasons.

In the first place, from the beginning the office has
been intrenched in county politics. The county super-
intendent, always dependent on the county politicians
for appointment or nomination and election, had been
subject to all the ins and outs of county politics. In the
second place, the salary was too meagre to attract and
hold competent men. The first county superintendents
received a maximum of $100 annually, later increased to
an average of about $250. Between 1870 and 1884,
the salary was further increased; but up to 1912, the
maximum that might be paid was $1,500. After 1*912,
the maximum was $2,500, and the minimum $600. Never
in all the history of the state has more than one superin-
tendent received the maximum, $2,500; and county su-
perintendents are now serving, and will continue to
serve until December 30, 192 1, for the minimum $600 a
year. The law of 1920 fixes the minimum at $1,200, and
places no limit on what a county board may pay. Of
the 70 newly elected superintendents, one will receive
$4,000 a year. Above 20 per cent, will receive the mini-
mum, $1,200, with the average for all $1,81.7. As a re-
sult of low salaries, many county superintendents have
been anything but educators. They have been farmers,
storekeepers, lawyers, doctors, ministers, insurance
agents, blacksmiths, carpenters, dressmakers, milliners,
etc.

Repeated efforts have been made to define proper

34 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

qualifications for the office, but the highest ever pre-
scribed— two years of education beyond high school
graduation — are entirely inadequate. Inadequate as
they are, probably less than a third of the superintendents
now in office could meet them. Of the 96 county super-
intendents in office in 1920-192 1 reporting to us, 8 have
never gone beyond the elementary school. Of the re-
mainder,

27 have had less than a full high school course;

25 have had the equivalent of a high school course;

14 have had less than two years beyond high school;

13 have had as much as two years beyond;
2 have had three years beyond; and
7 have had the equivalent of a standard college
training or more.
Doubtless all of them have through reading added to
their training, and some have had experience as school-
men; but even if full credit be given for experience and
outside reading, all too many of the county superintend-
ents are unqualified to discharge the duties of the office.

It goes without saying that county superintendents
who are dependent for their positions on poHtical favor,
who participate actively in county politics, who give
only part time to the schools, and who are mostly un-
trained, cannot be active educational leaders. Some of
them are little more than office clerks, and poor ones at
that. Their financial accounts are wretchedly kept-
often their ledger is their checkbook stubs, and a bal-
ance is seldom struck except at the close of the school

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 35

year. Irregularities in the auditing and paying of bills
and in the handling of public funds are common. While
the county courts are expected to audit school accounts
annually, the audit is seldom more than a formality,
and in one county there has been no settlement for
years. Fortunately for the future, the law of 1920 re-
quires county boards to provide annually for an out-
side audit and to publish the results. Further, the new
account book, prepared by the state board of educa-
tion, requires a monthly balance, and it is hoped that
the appropriation of 1922 will enable the state superin-
tendent to supervise adequately both the accoimting
and the business methods of county boards. The
rapidly increasing expenditures make such supervision
more imperative than ever before.

The clerical work of the ofhce of the county superin-
tendent is generally as poorly done as the accounting.
Reports are required from teachers, but few superin-
tendents see to it that each teacher makes all the reports
required or that those made are either complete or cor-
rect. Examination has been made of hundreds of
teachers' registers, which include the teacher's term
record and annual report, without finding one that is both
complete and correct. The superintendents' annual
reports to the state superintendent are likewise usually
incomplete, and rarely accurate; occasionally they are
not even made at all. Even on current items of ad-
ministrative importance, it is next to impossible for the
state department to obtain reHable information. And

36 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the present survey of public education has been con-
tinually hampered by the incorrectness and incomplete-
ness of official data.

The county superintendents are not themselves alto-
gether to blame. The offices of many are inadequate
and poorly furnished. Few have ample cabinets and
filing cases; not more than four or five have modern cler-
ical and statistical devices, such as mimeographs and
adding machines, and two-thirds of them are entirely
without clerical assistance of any kind. Under these
conditions, full information about the schools simply
cannot be collected and compiled, whatever the law.

These defects in business methods, accounting, and
reporting would be less serious if superintendents per-
formed satisfactorily their administrative and supervis-
ory duties. Though a few superintendents have re-
cently been active in promoting consolidation, in erecting
new schoolhouses, in encouraging better attendance, in
engaging better teachers, and in securing larger county
levies, the majority have no administrative program
and exercise little administrative control. The admin-
istrative looseness in many counties is astonishing; the
superintendent knows little about how the schools are
conducted. Trustees dismiss teachers apparently with-
out cause, and close the schools for the most trivial
reasons. In one instance a trustee closed the school be-
cause his son was ill, and he did not want him to lose
any time; therefore, other children had to wait until he
was well. The teachers themselves, apparently without

One-Room Rural Schoolhouses of Somewhat More Modern Type

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 37

anyone's knowledge or authorization, also close the
schools for days and weeks to do farm work, or visit,
or go shopping, or rest. For example, a teacher, on
securing her first pay, forthwith closed school for a week
and proceeded to Lexington to do her winter shopping.
Nothing at all is thought of dismissing school an hour
or two earlier than the appointed time. That schools
should begin and close regularly at definite hours, and
that they should continue uninterruptedly throughout
the term, are elementary points in administration that
are disregarded at will under the happy-go-lucky, do-as-
you-please regime that obtains in Kentucky.

Although schools are usually in the hands of young,
inexperienced, and untrained teachers, many superin-
tendents give little or no thought to supervision. Less
than half report giving as much as one-fourth of their
time to this work; a fourth give none at all. Even if
they were all quaHfied to supervise teaching, the attitude
of county boards of education toward paying expenses
incurred in the performance of official duties would dis-
courage them. A third of the county boards of educa-
tion provide no expense allowance; another third make
only a meagre allowance. Such conveyance as is needed
(a saddle horse, horse and buggy, or automobile) must be
provided by the county superintendent, who also fre-
quently pays all of his traveling expenses.

Under the most favorable conditions a superintendent,
single-handed and alone, cannot properly supervise the
schools of an entire county. In every county there

38 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

should be at the very least one additional person who
spends all her time in helping teachers, especially young
teachers, to organize their schools, to classify, grade, and
teach their pupils. One county now has two special
supervisors of physical education; another, two special
supervisors of cooking and sewing; eleven have each
a colored supervisor for colored schools; but there is not a
single regular white rural supervisor in the entire state.

The law of 191 2 authorized county boards of education
to employ rural school supervisors. The next year the
state superintendent reported 49 rural supervisors at
work, and predicted the early extension of supervision
to all the counties. The persons so employed, however,
were seldom especially trained, few county superintend-
ents were sufficiently equipped to appreciate, select, or
direct a good supervisor, and, in consequence, the whole
enterprise quickly fell into disrepute.

Some counties are now attempting its revival through
attendance officers. Attendance officers who have had
teaching or family experience can help young teachers
in disciphne and management, but they have neither
the time nor, ordinarily, the training to do supervisory
work of the amount and kind needed. To rely on at-
tendance officers for supervisory direction would there-
fore be a grave mistake. The work can be entrusted only
to skilled persons, specially trained, if soHd results are to
be obtained.

The law of 1920 removed the office of county super-
intendent from poKtics, placing his selection in the hands

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 39

of the county board of education. But time must pass
before results appear. Most of the county superintend-
ents holding office have been reappointed by the new
county boards of education. In many instances this
was not only the wise thing to do, but it was all that
could be done. Yet in a number of counties the boards
had the money and the power to go out of the county
and even out of the state for superintendents, but
failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Trained
Kentuckians in number qualified for the office are not
available, and neither Kentuckians nor qualified persons
outside of the state will be available until the new law
is appreciated by the people and its spirit carried out
by county boards of education.

GRADED COMMON SCHOOL DISTRICTS

We have said that two educational divisions are not
included in the county unit, viz., the graded common
school district and the city school system. The state
now has 314 white and 2 colored graded school districts,
each with its own board of trustees, acting independently
of the county board of education.

Graded school districts are as old as the pubHc schools
themselves. Louisville, Lexington, and Maysville were
recognized as such by the organic law of 1838. Prior
to 1888 graded school districts operated either under the
same laws as ordinary school districts, or received special
charters from the general assembly. Since 1888 the
school laws have contained a separate chapter dealing

40 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

with their organization and administration, which sets
them off from the ordinary district; a few, however, still
cHng to their special charters.

Up to 1888 only one general provision was imposed
on towns or villages desiring to organize as graded dis-
tricts. They were expected to estabHsh and maintain
common schools adequate to teach all children of the
district, free of charge. After 1888 a town or village was
required to vote a maximum local school tax, first of
70 cents, later of 50 cents. From time to time other re-
quirements have been imposed. For example, since 1893,
the petition to the county court for an election to decide
on the formation of a graded district has had to be en-
dorsed by the trustees of the ordinary districts affected
and by the county superintendent, and since 19 14 such
petition must be approved by both the county board of
education and the county superintendent. Again, in
1893, the size of graded districts was restricted to two
and one-half miles in all directions from the proposed
school site, and since 1914 such districts must contain at
least 100 census pupils. The county district law of 1908
contained still other restrictions, and since 1916 graded
school districts have been required to maintain a high
school equal to that maintained by the county board or
to pay the tuition of its pupils in an approved high
school elsewhere.

These regulations are well enough in themselves, but
no penalty has ever been imposed for violating them,
nor any means provided for returning to the county a

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 41

graded school district which fails to carry out the con-
ditions in question.^ To illustrate : A district votes the
required local school tax, but for years at a time no local
school tax is levied, and, however dire the need, the maxi-
mum may never be levied. Doubtless all graded school
districts contained 100 census pupils when organized,
but the state now has 63 that no longer contain the requi-
site minimum. The obligations of graded school dis-
tricts to provide high school opportunities are clear; but
there are 52 that make no such provision. In short,
once organized, the graded school district becomes a law
unto itself.

As suggested, graded school districts not only vary
in size, but in the character of the schools maintained.
They range in size as follows:

10 employ one teacher;

77 employ two teachers;

63 employ three teachers;

52 employ four teachers;

34 employ five teachers;

26 employ six teachers;

54 employ seven or more teachers.
In the larger graded school districts, those employing
seven or more teachers, there is generally much to com-
mend. Most of these have good school buildings and

1 Such districts, with the approval of the county board of education and
the county superintendent, may vote to return themselves to the county,
but there is no other authority with power to put them back into the
county.

42 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

grounds, employ fairly well-trained principals, on salaries
ranging from $1,500 to $2,500, and maintain not only
well-graded elementary schools, but four-year high
schools, with a nine or ten months' term. The educa-
tional interest in certain of these districts is admirable.
For example, when, in 1920, it was supposed that such
districts were authorized by law to levy a maximum tax
of $1.25, a number forthwith levied the maximum, and in
a few, although the law was later declared invalid, the
maximum, by common consent of the taxpayers, was
collected.

On the other hand, probably nowhere else in the entire
public school system of the state, all things considered,
are educational conditions quite so bad as in the small
graded school districts. Sometimes the school term is
only six months long; the schoolhouses are mostly ram-
shackle, tumble-down, dirty, wooden structures; not
infrequently the teachers hold no certificates at all, are
no better prepared than the ordinary rural teacher, and
are sometimes paid less. A local school tax may or may
not be levied, and, when levied, the sheriff may hold it in
his own hands for as much as two years. Cases are
known where the collector has not made a settlement
within five years. Evidence of petty graft, inefficiency,
and the free play of personal and partisan interests
abounds. If there is any reason, other than to avoid
taxation, for the existence of most of these small graded
districts, it is certainly not apparent.

The administration of the graded school districts in the

LOCAL ORGANIZATION , 43

coal-producing counties calls for special comment. The
coal companies appear friendly toward public education,
enter actively into their management, and seem to be
doing a good deal more for the schools than the law
requires. But the arrangements are not infrequently of
a paternalistic character. For example, a coal company
builds and pays for the schoolhouse, and either rents or
gives it rent-free to the board of trustees. If the funds
available are not adequate for current maintenance, the
company makes up the deficit. The company thus
keeps itself before the community as a patron, and ap-
pears to be doing more than its bare duty to the com-
munity. In many cases, however, if the usual tax was
levied, the community could do all these things — and
more — for itself. Besides, it would own and control its
own school plant; the school patrons would be accus-
tomed to paying school taxes, and the conununity
would have a self-respect impossible so long as it is the
beneficiary of a corporation. In some places the law
is plainly ignored. To illustrate: In certain districts
no school tax is levied; the coal companies, without
authority of law, hold out a certain amount monthly from
the wages of the miners, which, along with what the
companies donate, goes to support the school. The com-
panies lead the communities to beheve that they are
expending on the schools far more than their ordinary
school taxes, whereas in some instances they are saving
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars annually. Need-
less to say, this sort of thing should be stopped.

44 • PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

The difficulty of supervising 316 graded school dis-
tricts is obvious. They have, all told, more than one
thousand trustees, 316 collectors, and 316 treasurers.
Scattered, as they are, over all parts of the state, even
the inspection of the accounts of these 316 boards, to
say nothing of supervising their business methods and
administrative practices, is an impossible task. Casual
inspections, however, have revealed diverse irregularities
and the probable loss annually of thousands of dollars of
pubhc money.

Nor is there any adequate local administration out-
side of the larger districts, for only the very largest can
afford to employ competent superintendents. The
school principal usually teaches full time and is responsi-
ble, besides, for the discipKne and management of the
school; but he has neither time nor capacity to handle the
financial affairs of the district. The board of trustees
attends to these in its own way, without help or sugges-
tion from any source.

The difficulty of properly administering these 316
separate and independent graded districts would in itself
be sufficient reason for bringing them back into the
county system, but there are other substantial reasons
for so doing.

Prior to the enactment in 1908 of the county school
district laws it was well enough for towns and villages
to form themselves into graded districts. In fact, it
was a distinct advantage to have them do so, as it en-
couraged local initiative. But the creation of the county

Typical Rural School Outhouses

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 45

unit, with a county board of education with large
educational and financial powers, and particularly the
imposition of a compulsory county school tax, en-
tirely change the situation. Under these conditions
graded school districts and a county school system are
contradictory. A fully developed county system ex-
cludes the possibility of graded districts, and, con-
versely, the existence of graded districts impairs the
county system.

Again, the imposition of a compulsory county school
tax raises a fundamental question with respect to ex-
empting graded districts from county school taxes. So
long as there was no county school tax, it was well enough
to allow graded districts to levy and enjoy a local tax.
But this is not the whole story. Graded districts have
extended their boundaries up and down railways and in
and around every possible bit of valuable personal and
corporate property, so that, exempt as they are from the
county school tax, they enjoy the sole benefits of property
which can scarcely be sa,id to belong merely to them.
In fact, most of the graded districts would not have been
estabhshed had it not been for this opportunity. As the
compulsory county school tax does not touch property in-
cluded in the graded district, a considerable part of the
taxable property of each county is not subject to county
tax. The following is a representative situation. A
county has six graded districts, which receive all the
proceeds of taxation from two-thirds of all the railways;
in these six districts there is concentrated, including the

46 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

railroads, almost one-half of all the taxable wealth of
the county, but only one-third of all the school children.
For the county outside the graded districts to produce
per pupil the same amount of money for school purposes,
the school tax rate in the county would have to be twice
as great as the rate in the graded districts. Under these
conditions, equality of educational opportunities is im-
possible. Naturally, there is a widespread and rapidly
developing feeling that graded districts ought not to be
exempted from the county school tax, and this feeling
is justified.

There is a further inherent injustice to the rural sec-
tions in the existence of graded districts. With two ex-
ceptions, they include only schools for white children;
the responsibility for colored schools in villages and
towns is thrown on the county. To be sure, the local
tax levied for white schools is levied only on the property
of whites, but the question is not. Where is the tax levied?,
but who pays it. It is generally agreed that all taxes are
ultimately paid by the consumers; hence, a Negro who
rents a house owned by a white man contributes to the
taxes on white property. Even the tax levied on cor-
porate wealth within the graded school district has only
recently been shared with the colored schools.

Again, the original reason for estabhshing graded
school districts has, in a number of counties, practically
disappeared, and it is hoped will disappear in all parts
of the state in the near future. When no rural schools
ran more than six months, it was an advantage if even a

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 47

single district provided a longer term. But there are
now some twelve counties that have a school term of
more than six months, and other counties are moving
in the same direction. Henceforth, not this or that
graded district, but the entire county should extend
its term, when conditions are ripe for such action.

Finally, so far as possible, the one-teacher rural school
should be abolished, to be replaced by larger union or
consoUdated schools. Most of the graded school dis-
tricts comprise towns and villages that are natural con-
soKdation centers. So long as they exist independently
of the county system, they are stumbhng blocks to con-
solidation. ConsoHdation may be effected under the
joint control of graded district trustees and county
boards of education, but this method results in divided
responsibility, endless compHcation, and frequent injus-
tice to one or the other party.

We are, therefore, of the opinion that all graded dis-
tricts should so far as possible be converted into consoli-
dated schools and returned to the county system. To do
so will wipe out certain outstanding injustices, will add to
the dignity and strength of the county system, and at the
same time will be to the advantage of the graded school
districts themselves. As things now stand, neither the
county nor the separate districts can support a proper
organization. By pooling resources a strong superin-
tendent and a well-trained professional staff can be more
easily provided. And through proper consoHdation,
the educational facilities of many graded school districts,

48 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

as well as of the county as a whole, will be greatly-
strengthened.

Even when graded districts are restored to the county,
the largest may still maintain a degree of local autonomy.
They might be permitted to retain their local board of
trustees; also, they might levy an additional local school
tax to be expended, subject to mutual agreement between
the respective trustees and the county board of education,
for local purposes, such as lengthening the school term,
employing better trained teachers, providing educational
equipment, play-grounds, athletic fields, etc.

CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTS

The remaining local unit of organization and adminis-
tration is the city school district. These are of four
types, comprising, respectively, cities of the first class, of
which there is i ; cities of the second class, of which there
are 4 ; cities of the third class, of which there are 8 ; and
cities of the fourth class, of which there are 46.

City schools were operated prior to 1893 either under
graded district school laws or under special charters,
mostly the latter. The adoption of the new constitution
of 1 89 1 gave opportunity to systematize city school
legislation, and separate codes for each class of cities
were enacted in 1893. These separate city codes have
been amended from time to time, so that as they now
stand few states possess better city school legislation than
Kentucky.

The four separate city codes closely resemble one an-

Two- and Three-Room Rural Schoolhouses of the Older Type

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 49

other. They provide for small boards of education,
elected by the people on secret and non-partisan ballots.
These boards have both financial and educational con-
trol of the schools, with power to appoint the necessary
agents, such as superintendents, business managers,
principals, teachers, etc. With the exception of Louis-
ville, they are independent of municipal authorities in
school finance, having power to request or to levy school
taxes up to a specified maximum, and all are authorized
to submit to the people the question of issuing bonds,
within constitutional Hmitations, for the purchase of
school grounds and the erection of school buildings.

Such differences as exist are, for the most part, of
minor importance. For example, in first and second class
cities the boards of education are composed of five mem-
bers; in third class cities, of nine members; and in fourth
class cities, of six members. In Louisville, the only city
of the first class, the board of education has no taxing
power, no power to fix the school tax or to compel the
levy by the city council. The council must levy for
schools not less than 36 cents and not more than $1 .00 per
hundred, but between these two extremes the rate is in the
discretion of the council and not of the board, of educa-
tion. In cities of the second, third, and fourth class the
board of education has the taxing power. In second
class cities, the tax is Hmited to 65 cents; in third class
cities, to $1.00, including a poll tax not exceeding $1.50;
and in fourth class cities, to $1.50, including a poll tax
not exceeding $2.00.

50 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

Other parts of the school system have been seriously
hindered by constitutional Kmitations and poor laws —
for example, the state department of education and the
counties — ^but this cannot be said of the cities, at least
in recent years. In consequence, the towns educationally
approximate towns of equal size elsewhere. Neverthe-
less, defects are serious, as they are generally throughout
the country. Too often boards of education, rather
than trained superintendents, still run the schools; per-
sonal favoritism still plays too large a part in the em-
ployment of teachers; and financial support is generally
inadequate to provide suitable grounds and buildings,
skilled administrators, well- trained teachers, qualified
supervisors, attendance officers, school doctors and
nurses. Help cannot, however, be obtained by radical
changes in the city school laws; an enJightened and active
public sentiment, and a deeper appreciation of the scope
and value of public education are requisite.

A few minor changes might, however, be made to ad-
vantage. For example, it would simphfy the school
laws and add to the ease of administration if the four
separate school codes, so similar in general outline, were
combined into a single code, appKcable to all cities. Thus
minor differences could be eliminated; the powers and
duties that properly belong to a board could be more
clearly distinguished from those properly belonging to
the superintendent of schools as its executive officer.
The relative position of superintendent and business
manager could also be soundly adjusted. As the law for

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 51

first and second class cities now stands, the business
manager is co-ordinate with the superintendent ; he should ,
we believe, for the sake of harmony and efficiency, be
subordinate to the superintendent and subject to his
direction. While the maximum tax rate should prob-
ably not be uniform for all cities, that for first and second
class cities should be considerably increased, and the
school boards in first class cities should be made inde-
pendent of the city council in school finance.

Whether or not a single city school code is adopted,
certain other needed changes should undoubtedly be
brought about through general legislation. For example,
cities that still possess special charters should surrender
them ; likewise, the pro\dsion in the code for fourth class
cities which permits of two boards of education, one for
white schools and one for colored schools, should be re-
pealed in the interest of unity, efficiency, and justice.

There is also a fundamental question that should be
carefully considered. Cities, Kke graded school districts,
are now free from the county school tax. Cities repre-
sent an extreme concentration of wealth, in the pro-
duction of which the county shares. They are not
independent in respect to taxation for other purposes;
they pay county taxes for county roads, county courts,
penal and eleemosynary institutions.

IV. TEACHERS

GOOD schools are impossible without good teach-
• ers, and good teachers are the product of training
and experience.
There were in service in 1920-1921, 13,653 teachers,
divided as follows: city, 2,708; graded district, 1,345;
and rural, 9,600. Of these, 12,146 are elementary and
1,507 are high school teachers.

TRAINING OF WHITE TEACHERS

A teacher's certificate indicates in a general way the
extent of her training and competency. The lowest
grade state certificate now issued requires an education
that goes somewhat beyond the elementary school, but'
less than high school graduation. Of all rural and
graded school teachers in service in 1 920-1 921, 84 per
cent, of the white and 65 per cent, of the colored held
this lowest grade state certificate, or county certificates
of similar rank.-^ It can therefore be safely affirmed
that a large majority of the teachers of Kentucky are
poorly educated and not professionally trained.

We have detailed information on the education and

iThe several cities — first, second, third, and fourth class — certificate
their own teachers, so that city certificates cannot be grouped with state
certificates.

52

TEACHERS 53

training of 11,712 of the 13,653 teachers, or 86 per cent,
of the total number. Conclusions based on returns
from so large a proportion will hold approximately true
for the entire teaching body.

On the basis of our returns, only one elementary teach-
er in ten is satisfactorily prepared to teach in an ele-
mentary school, that is, has graduated from high school
and has had at least two years of additional special train-
ing. As might be expected, a greater proportion of city
than of rural elementary teachers are satisfactorily
trained. Forty per cent, of the elementary teachers in
cities have had a satisfactory training, as compared with
8 per cent, in graded school districts, and 3 per cent, in
the counties.

Nor does the state possess a considerable body of even
fairly well trained elementary teachers. In fact, 63
per cent, of all the elementary teachers of Kentucky
have had less than a full high school training, and 23
per cent, have never gone beyond the elementary school.
The bulk of these very poorly trained teachers are in the
rural schools, where 77 per cent, have had less than a full
high school course, and 30 per cent, have themselves
never advanced beyond the elementary school. (See
Table I, Appendix.)

Conditions in the high schools are somewhat better.
At that, only sHghtly more than one high school teacher
in four is satisfactorily prepared to give high school in-
struction. (See Table II, Appendix.) Again, cities are
better supplied than the counties, for 41 per cent, of

54

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

Elementary
school

Part high
school

Full high
school

1 year ahove
high school

2 year a ehove
high school

3 years ahove
high school

4 years above
high school

2,108

3,679

195

1 130

Figure i. Preparation of White Elementary Teachers

city high school teachers have satisfactory training, as
compared with 14 per cent, in graded school districts and
10 per cent, in rural districts. Twenty-one per cent, of
all high school teachers, and in rural sections 35 per cent.,
have not themselves enjoyed the equivalent of a high
school education.

Elementary
school
Part high
school

Full high
school

1 year above
high school

2 years above
high school

3 years above
high school

4 years above
high school

331

Figure 2, Preparation of White High School Teachers.

TEACHERS 55

TRAINING OF COLORED TEACHERS

All things considered, colored teachers make a com-
mendable showing. A third of them have had two
years or more of training beyond a high school course.
(See Table III, Appendix.) City colored teachers are
better prepared than rural colored teachers. In the
cities 53 per cent, have advanced two years or more
beyond high school, whereas in rural sections only 18
per cent, have advanced so far.

teachers' salaries

Low salaries, a defective certification system, a lack
of supervision and inadequate teacher-training institu-
tions account for Kentucky's poorly trained teachers.

The salaries paid Kentucky teachers have always been
close to the lowest paid in the United States. The aver-
age was, for

1900,1215;
1910, $337;
1918, $364.

Up to 191 2 teachers were left to wring from school
boards whatever they could. The state, however, came
to the assistance of rural elementary teachers in 191 2,
when a minimum wage of $35 a month was set, with a
maximum of $70 a month, for a six months' term. In
1918 the minimum was raised to $45 and in 1920 to $75,
with no maximum specified. But even now the wage
paid the best prepared rural elementary teachers rarely

56 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

exceeds $ioo per month. On the other hand, 40 counties
are unable to pay the $75 minimum. The maximum in
these 40 counties is around $65. While, therefore, a few
rural elementary teachers are now paid around $100 per
month, approximately 84 per cent, receive only between
$65 and $75 per month for from six to eight months a
year.

Graded districts and especially cities pay elementary
teachers a better annual if not a higher monthly wage
than the counties. But rarely outside of Louisville does
an elementary teacher receive as much as $1,000 per
year; the great majority get between $700 and $800 a
year.

High school teachers are paid more than elementary
teachers; the average high school salary for 1920-1921
was $1,278.

So long as such low salaries prevail, particularly in the
rural sections, young men and women will not prepare
themselves thoroughly for teaching. Unless the wages
for well-trained teachers are materially advanced, Ken-
tucky's schools will continue to be in the hands of
teachers who know little more than the brighter children
in school, and teachers will continue to teach only until
they can find something else to do.

CERTIFICATION SYSTEM

The certification system now in use does not encourage
young people to get professional training. In the first
place, there never has been any clear recognition that

Old-Style Rural Schoolhouses, with Two or IMoie Rooms

TEACHERS 57

different kinds of school work — for example, teaching in
the elementary school and teaching in high school — call
for different kinds of training. Almost all certificates
thus far issued, except those of the lowest grade, have
been vahd in both elementary and high schools. To
illustrate: The state board of education may grant to a
graduate of a standard college, who has taken as a part
of his college course a specified amount of professional
high school work, an advanced high school certificate.
On the other hand, the state normal schools may grant
to an eighth grade graduate, without any high school
training, who has completed a fifty weeks' course speci-
ally adapted to teaching in the elementary schools, an
elementary certificate which is Kke^vise valid in high
schools. The college graduate and the fifty-week normal
school student may teach side by side in the same high
school.

In the second place, there has never been any definite
relation between the training required and the grade and
validity of the certificate granted. For example, a state
teacher's certificate presupposes scholarship equivalent
to the completion of a four-year high school course, and is
vahd in all pubHc schools. On the other hand, a state
teacher's diploma presupposes scholarship equivalent
to the completion of two years of college work, and is
Ukewise vahd in all pubhc schools. Thus, these two
years of additional preparation apparently count for
nothing. The teacher who has had two years of college
work does not rank above the one who has advanced no

S8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

further than the high school. Why should he seek the
higher training?

In the third place, there is even now only the sHghtest
relation between the training required and the salary
paid. For example, in the teachers' salary schedule for
1 920-1 92 1, the following certificates, which presuppose
far different amounts of training, call, within any one
county, for the same monthly wage:

Certificate Years of Training Pre-

supposed

State Teacher's Certificate Equivalent of high school

course
Intermediate Normal One hundred weeks above

elementary school

Advanced Normal One ^undred-eighty weeks

'^ above elementary school

Elementary University One year above high school

Intermediate University Two years above high

school
Elementary High School Full college course

Thus, as far as salary schedule goes, the teacher who has
taken the trouble and spent the money to get a college
education gets the same remuneration as the one who
has had only one hundred weeks of schooling above
the elementary school.

Long-standing and widespread corruption in the issu-
ing of certificates has also done much to discourage honest

TEACHERS 59

preparation. In the past, county superintendents, act-
ing through county boards of examiners, have at times
granted certificates without discrimination in direct or
indirect payment for political services. The evils sur-
rounding the issuance of county certificates were, how-
ever, largely done away with in 1920, when the authority
formerly exercised by county boards of examiners was
concentrated in the state board of examiners.

But Kentucky will not have a sound certification sys-
tem until the fifty or sixty other certificating authorities,
including cities and public and private institutions, are
aboHshed, and the sole power of granting certificates —
city, graded school, and county — is vested in the state
board of education. Cities should be encouraged to
require of their teachers qi ' ications higher than those
imposed by the state, but at the same time all city teach-
ers should hold p'^^lc certificates. Such state certificates
would be mop^ly issued on credentials. Likewise, to
deprive public and private institutions of their present
powers to certificate their respective students does not
mean that such students would be compelled to take
examinations. In general, students of all standard in-
stitutions offering approved teacher- training courses
would be granted the appropriate certificate on presenta-
tion of credentials showing the amount and kind of work
completed. Thus to centralize certificating authority
will do away with existing confusion and will set up a
single standard for certificates of a given kind and grade.

Under a sound certification system, different kinds and

6o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

grades of certificates will be issued for different kinds of
school work; and each kind and grade of certificate will
be linked with a distinct prescribed salary. Thus, the
certificate will vary with the training, and the salary will
correspond to the certificate. All kinds and grades of
certificates requiring the same length of preparation will
call for the same salary. Salaries will be so graduated
that the least well prepared and least experienced teacher
will receive the lowest salary, and the best prepared and
most experienced, the highest salary. A certification
system based on these two principles not only recognizes
preparation and experience, but rewards them. Teach-
ers are thus encouraged to prepare themselves and to
continue to teach, if for no other reason than that they
may claim the higher wage.

TEACHER-TRAINING INSTITUTIONS

Despite low wages and an infenor certification system,
the state would now have a larger body of well-trained
teachers had it at an early date provided properly for
teacher-training institutions.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, STATE UNIVERSITY

Apart from an ineffective effort in 1856 to establish
a normal school in connection with Transylvania Col-
lege, and another unsuccessful attempt in connection
with the Kentucky Mihtary Institute in 1878, Kentucky
did nothing for the training of teachers until 1880, when a
normal department was added to the University of Ken-

TEACHERS 6i

tucky. Up to this time public school teachers depended
for their training on the colleges, academies, and par-
ticularly on private normal schools which sprang up in
different parts of the state around some strong person-
ality, flourished for a time and died. Sixteen of these
private normal schools were active when the state in 1880
undertook the professional training of teachers.

From the beginning the normal school estabhshed at
the University of Kentucky offered advanced instruction,
and in 1893 courses were outlined leading to the degree of
bachelor of pedagogy. The state's conception at this
time of its responsibiHty for the training of teachers was,
however, very narrow, for it Hmited the number of stu-
dents with free tuition to five from any one county.

The normal department was dropped in 1908, and in
its stead there was estabhshed a department of education
of collegiate rank. The department is supported from
the general funds of the university, with the exception of
Smith-Hughes work, for which the university receives an
allotment from the state vocational education board.
The total Smith-Hughes expenditure in 1920-192 1 was
$27,000.

The department is administratively a part of the col-
lege of arts and sciences. Students in education are
therefore not registered separately, nor has the depart-
ment, except for teachers of agriculture and home econ-
omics, outlined courses in education for high school
teachers, principals, superintendents, etc., such as are
outHned in business administration, social service, geology,

62 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

and journalism. Students completing one year's work
are granted an elementary university certificate, two
years' work, an. intermediate university certificate, and
three years' work, an advanced university certificate —
each vaKd in both elementary and high schools. The
total enrollment in the department in 1920-1921 was 274.
Eight students received degrees in education, 8 in agricul-
ture, and 12 in home economics.

The number graduating from the department has
never been large. In fact, the total number of state
university graduates now teaching in the pubhc schools
is probably less than 100, and the total number having
had some work at the university but not graduating is
less than 400. Slight as this contribution to the teaching
staff is, no other institution in the state even approaches
this record.

The development of the department is clearly Kmited
to the number of students entering the university for other
than technical courses, such as engineering or agri-
culture. But with the development of the university the
number of such students will increase, and a sound
certification system will do something to increase the
number desiring to prepare for teaching.

EASTERN AND WESTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS

The two white state normal schools established in 1906
are twin institutions. Each is governed by its own
board of regents, consisting of the superintendent of
public instruction as chairman and four members ap-

TEACHERS 63

pointed by the governor for terms of four years. Over
each is also a subordinate governing body, the normal
school executive council, consisting of the state superin-
tendent and the presidents of the two schools. Since
191 8 each school has derived about $125,000 annually
from a mill tax of five-eighths of one cent for current sup-
port and the erection of buildings; they have also each
received additional appropriations of approximately
$305,000 for permanent improvements. Each occupies
the campus of an abandoned college; their plants are
therefore partly old and partly new. The value of the
plant of the Western Normal is now estimated at
$546,000, and that of the Eastern at $748,000. The
schools are open annually for forty-eight weeks — four reg-
ular terms of ten weeks each and a summer term of eight
weeks. The courses of study are similar, consisting of an
elementary certificate course, an intermediate certificate
course, and an advanced certificate course; though, as
we shall point out later, the Western Normal offers a
greater variety of advanced courses than the Eastern.
The enrollment of the Western Normal for the entire
year has run as high as 2,000, and that of the Eastern as
high as 1,500. The Western Normal has graduated from
its advanced course, including the year 192 1, 677 stu-
dents, and the Eastern Normal, 519 students.

The value of these institutions to the pubKc schools can
scarcely be overestimated. Their administration has
been practically free from politics, and they have served
the state faithfully and well. The state's greatest need

64 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

for many years to come, if its educational system is to rest
on a sound foundation, is well-trained elementary teach-
ers. The poUcies of these two normal schools ought,
therefore, at this time to be carefully examined in view
of the state's needs and their appropriate functions.

Conditions existing at the time the normal schools
were estabUshed compelled them to give both normal
school and high school instruction, and to build up their
courses around teachers' certificates of low grade.

When conditions are favorable to the effective training
of teachers, only high school graduates are admitted to
normal schools. In 1906, when Kentucky normal
schools were established, only the cities and the more
progressive towns had high schools ; in fact, there was at
that time not a standard rural high school in the state.
The great majority of the students entering the normal
schools were therefore without home high school op-
portunities, and few indeed were high school graduates.
To meet these conditions and to give their students the
necessary preparatory training, the normal schools were
compelled to give a considerable amount of strictly
high school instruction. Even now, Kentucky high
schools are not all that they should be, but high school
opportunities have so multiphed as to relieve the normal
schools to a considerable extent of this obligation, and
the state should no longer look to them to do high school
work.

Again, when Kentucky normal schools were estab-
lished, professional training was little appreciated, and

Newer Type of Rural Schoolhouses, with Two or :\Iore Rooms

TEACHERS 65

state and county standards for teachers' certificates
were extremely low. Accordingly, the normal schools
were compelled to build up their courses around certi-
ficates of low academic and professional requirements.
The result is that the normal schools have developed
three relatively distinct and poorly organized courses —
an elementary certificate course, requiring 50 weeks of
attendance above the elementary school ; an intermediate
certificate course, requiring 100 weeks of attendance
above the elementary school ; and an advanced certificate
course, requiring 180 weeks of attendance above the
elementary school. Only the adoption by the state of
a certification system with appropriate academic and
professional standards \vill enable the normal schools to
develop proper courses, controlled alone by the needs
of well-trained teachers.

Present requirements for graduation from the ad-
vanced course are, for students entering directly from
the elementary school, from a half to a year short of
what they should be. For example, an elementary school
graduate can finish the advanced course in four and a
half years of 40 weeks each. Normal school students
can probably do more in a given time than high school
students, for the average age of students entering the
normal schools for the first time is about nineteen years,
which is approximately the average age of the freshmen
entering the state university. But normal school stu-
dents can hardly cover in four and a half years of 40
weeks each the ground between the elementary school

66 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

and the sophomore year in college, or six years of school
work. The shortest time in which normal school stu-
dents can cover this field is probably five years of 40
weeks each. If the state is to have elementary teachers
of standard training, these schools should further raise
their standards, at least for pupils entering from the ele-
mentary school, if not also for high school graduates.

Low state and county standards for certificates also
largely explain why the normal schools are able to hold so
relatively few students until they complete the advanced
course. The great bulk of their work now is and always
has been with students taking a preparatory course to
complete the eighth grade, and with students of eighth
grade attainments who are taking the elementary certifi-
cate course. To illustrate: The total enrollment of the
Western Normal School for 1920-192 1 was approximately
2,000 students; nevertheless, the enrollment as of April
I, 1 92 1, was only 951 students. Forty-eight (48) of
these were disabled soldiers; the remainder were dis-
tributed as follows:

Elementary course, which requires elementary gradua-
tion for entrance, 557

Intermediate course, which requires 50 weeks beyond
elementary school for entrance, 126

Advanced course, which requires 100 weeks beyond ele-
mentary school for entrance, 2 20

The same relative distribution among courses prevails
at the Eastern Normal School. Notwithstanding these
large total annual enrollments, the Western Normal

TEACHERS 67

School graduated in 192 1 only 79 students, and the
Eastern Normal School, only 35 students.

Finally, both schools have recently undertaken to
train high school teachers. The Western Normal School
in particular emphasizes this feature. It has developed
within the last few years a number of specialized high
school courses, corresponding in their requirements
to the advanced elementary course, and is now offering
full college courses in a number of studies, such as Latin
and mathematics. The Western Normal has, however,
only 465 students qualified to take advantage of these
electives, of whom approximately three-fourths are
occupied with elementary work. Should normal schools,
originally created to train elementary teachers, and still
inadequate to supply the need, even when working at
full capacity, undertake the training of high school
teachers?

In the sunrmer of 192 1, the state superintendent or-
ganized, through the extension divisions of the Eastern
and Western Normal Schools, 67 county training schools
for teachers. These are six-week schools, usually located
at a county seat, which offer to teachers instruction par-
ticularly in the common school subjects, and in methods
of teaching and school management. The expense was
borne by the teachers, who paid a tuition fee of $10 for
the six weeks' term, and by appropriations from county
and city boards of education. Attendance was volun-
tary, yet 3,700 teachers enrolled, which speaks volumes
for their loyalty and seriousness. At the same time, as

68 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

an indirect result of estabKshing county summer schools,
the attendance at all state normal schools was greatly
increased, so that altogether 7,000 Kentucky teachers
were in summer school in 1920-192 1. County teacher-
training schools have under existing conditions proved a
valuable part of the teacher-training facihties of other
states, and undoubtedly are calculated to render a great
service at this time in Kentucky.

How inadequate is the supply of trained teachers com-
ing from state institutions is revealed by the following
facts. To say nothing of the number required to fill new
positions, our high schools need annually not less than
130 trained teachers merely to take the place of those
dropping out. In 1920-192 1 the state university prepared
28, and of these only 8 were looking forward to usual
high school instruction, the others having speciaHzed in
agriculture and home economics. Similarly, to take the
place of the elementary teachers who drop out there is
need annually of approximately 1,450 teachers. To sup-
ply this demand, the Western and Eastern Normal
Schools together graduated, in 1920-192 1, 114, and ap-
proximately half of these do not expect to teach in the
elementary school.

TRAINING INSTITUTIONS FOR COLORED TEACHERS

The State Normal and Industrial Institute, established
in 1886 and located at Frankfort, is the older of the two
state institutions for training colored teachers. It is
managed by a board of trustees, consisting of the state

^JtfT^

"-" 1 I - _

PP »r *^ w ^-„ ■■ ^ .*JF

Consolidated Rural Schoolhouses of Better Type

TEACHERS 69

superintendent, as chairman, and three other members
appointed by the governor, with the approval of the sen-
ate, for terms of three years.

The institution was estabHshed for the purpose of train-
ing Negro teachers for the common schools, but in 1890
departments of agriculture, mechanics, and domestic
economy were organized ; more recently there have been
added courses in vocational agriculture and trades, to
meet the requirements of the Smith-Hughes act.

The majority of the students, who usually number
about 400, exclusive of the summer school, have always
been and are now enrolled in the normal department.
The normal school work proper is based on an inter-
mediate course of two years, which covers the seventh
and eighth grades, and on a preparatory high school
course of three years. The normal school course itself
covers three years, and is a queer mixture of advanced
high school instruction and normal school work, includ-
ing practice teaching. About 30 students complete the
course annually; they compare favorably with the grad-
uates of similar institutions elsewhere.

The West Kentucky Industrial College, located at
Paducah, became a state institution in 1918, when the
state appropriated $3,000 for annual maintenance and
$5,000 for buildings. (See picture opposite page 186.)
In 1920 the appropriation for maintenance was increased
to $5,000 annually, and $10,000 was appropriated for
permanent improvements for the biennial period 192 1 -
1922. The board of trustees consists of the president of

70 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the college, the county superintendent of McCracken
County, and three others appointed by the governor for
terms of two years. The school enjoys the same certi-
ficating powers as other state normal schools, and up to
date has issued 4 elementary certificates, 15 intermediate
certificates, and 4 advanced certificates. Although the
West Kentucky Industrial College is to be counted
among the state's resources for the training of Negro
teachers, the Frankfort school is the only state institution
even fairly well equipped to train teachers.

Altogether there are now available annually about 30
well-trained colored teachers, whereas approximately 75
are needed each year to take the place of those who leave
the system.

V. BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT

GOOD schoolhouses, adequate school grounds, and
appropriate physical and educational equipment
are essential to a good school. If classrooms are
dark and dirty, poorly ventilated, and irregularly heated,
if the sanitary arrangements and toilet facilities are un-
wholesome, and if the school is without facilities for physi-
cal training, play, and athletics, children are bound to
suffer physically. There is, moreover, a close relation
between physical welfare and mental, not to say, moral,
vigor. An attractive environment develops respect for
property, hygienic habits, modesty, and orderliness.

For purposes of description, Kentucky schoolhouses
may be grouped into rural, graded district, and city
schoolhouses.

RUHAL SCHOOLHOUSES

Of the 8,070 rural and graded district schoolhouses of
the state, 50 per cent, have been erected since 1908.
During this period the problems of schoolhouse construc-
tion have been more or less widely discussed, and the
importance of proper construction and arrangement has
been repeatedly emphasized. It might, therefore, be
expected that rural schoolhouses — at least those erected

71

72 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

within the last decade — would meet modern require-
ments.

The great majority of rural schoolhouses — approxi-
mately nine out of ten — are one-room, box-Hke struc-
tures, essentially alike from the mountains to the Missis-
sippi, and from the Ohio to Tennessee. These box-Kke
structures have, in the main, a single classroom; cloak-
rooms are rarely provided, and additional rooms for
manual training, cooking, agriculture, or for fuel, almost
never. They vary in size, number of windows, and in
having or not having porches ; but in all essential respects,
they are ahke and almost all bad. (For illustrations, see
opposite pages 4, 8, 16, 20, 28 and 36.)

If there is a really modern one-room structure in the
state, it did not come under our observation in the
course of inspection tours through two-thirds of the coun-
ties.

Only a few one-room rural schoolhouses have founda-
tions; most of them rest on stone pillars without other
underpinning. The biting winter blasts are thus free
to sweep under the schoolhouse and up through the thin
floor into the classroom to the discomfort of the teacher
and children.

Approximately 50 per cent, of these schoolhouses are
painted and in fair repair. The common color is white,
which is very attractive against the usual background
of green. The other half have in most instances never
had even an initial coat of paint, and are in ill repair.
The roofs leak, the weather-boarding is off here and

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS. AND EQUIPMENT 73

there, doors are broken, knobs gone, window panes out,
walls stained, floors uneven and cracked, scats broken
and out of place, and a pall of dust over all. These
neglected schoolhouses teach eloquently the doctrine of
shiftlessness, disorder, and indifference. Their silent
lessons will undoubtedly be reproduced in the home, on
the farm, in the factory and store. Such neglect and
lack of care would not be tolerated by any business
organization.

All rural schoolhouses except the very oldest are
ceiled. The favorite ceiling is wood, wliich is occasion-
ally painted, sometimes papered, but more often left
unfinished. Even when decoration is attempted, some
outlandish color is used, such as indigo blue, rather than
cream for the ceiling and hght and dark buff for the side
walls. Since there is usually no cloakroom, the children's
wraps are hung on the side walls — an unsightly as well as
unwholesome practice.

An upright Burnside stove furnishes heat, the fire being
started by the first person who reaches school, whether
pupil or teacher. As the margin before opening is slight,
time is necessarily lost in waiting for the children to warm
up. The stove usually stands in the center or front
center of the room. In cold weather this method of
heating almost demorahzes the school. Although it
is not difiicult to do, apparently rural teachers have
not learned how to build a fire in these stoves so as to
produce a uniform and continuous heat. Constant use
is made of "flash" fires — kindHng is piled in, coal

74 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

thrown on top, and all drafts opened. The fire roars,
the stove is soon red hot from top to base, and the chil-
dren nearby bake. Thereupon the windows are thrown
open, the stove door opened, the fire dies down, and the
room cools to the point of discomfort. During the
course of a single day, this process is repeated again and
again. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that
almost every afiSiction known to children visits rural
schools, closing them for weeks at a time, nor is it sur-
prising that in inclement weather httle school work is
done, for the children are continuously on the move from
one part of the room to another, either to get warm,
or to cool off, amid indescribable confusion and disorder.

If rural schools need one thing more than another, it
is some form of heater that will guarantee proper ventila-
tion and uniform heat conditions. Even if the comfort
of the children is totally disregarded, the loss of school
time from unnecessary sickness and from the interrup-
tion of school work, resulting from the use of the old-
fashioned stove, must in a single year greatly exceed the
cost of such a heater.

With few exceptions, one-room rural schools are
equipped with double patent desks, usually of three sizes,
and occasionally with single patent desks. They are also
furnished with a teacher's desk and chair, and with some
sort of bookcase. A galvanized bucket with a common
drinking cup almost invariably takes the place of a sani-
tary drinking fountain; lavatory facihties are non-
existent. The blackboard usually consists of the front

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 75

wall and a few side wall spaces painted black, and is, as
a rule, useless because of wear. In a few counties, each
school has in addition to the above equipment, a globe,
maps of the world, of the United States, and of Kentucky,
and a number of charts for reading, physiology, etc.;
now and then also, special chairs and work tables for
beginners.

Rural teachers are their own janitors. Most counties
make a pretense of providing floor oil or sweeping powder,
but as the teacher is generally expected to carry the
cleansing material from the county seat to the school,
all too frequently it never arrives. Sweeping is usually
done at the noon hour, the older girls helping. The
health of the children does not count as against the teach-
er's desire to leave as quickly as possible after the close of
school.

Under these conditions, it is gratifying to find, as one
occasionally does, a neat and well-kept schoolhouse. But,
of course, most of them are bound to be dirty. They
will continue to be dirty so long as teachers are required
to take care of them. The janitor work in rural schools
should be a county expense. If for practical reasons
it is necessary for the teacher to care for the schoolhouse,
she should be paid for doing it, and the pay should be in
addition to her salary as teacher.

Coal is the common fuel, but a coal house is rarely
found except in the Bluegrass and in a few of the western
counties. About half of the rural schools have wells or
cisterns; at the other half, water is carried from a nearby

76 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

spring or well. In the mountain countie's toilets aire prac-
tically unknown. In other sections there are usually
two at each schools — one for boys and one for girls — but
they are often badly located and in ill repair. (See il-
lustrations opposite page 44.) Girls' toilets are gen-
erally clean; boys' toilets are filthy and offensive beyond
beHef . In only one county are there uniformly sanitary
closets.

Rural school grounds are invariably small. In some
sections the mountainous character of the country ren-
ders difficult the acquisition of good-sized, level school
grounds, but in many instances school sites have been
chosen because the ground was worthless for other pur-
poses. Consequently, many scarcely afford level space
enough even for the schoolhouse. Some of the grounds
are picturesque and dotted with beautiful native trees;
but most of th6m are barren, rough, and unimproved.
Occasionally an enterprising teacher helps the children
with some play apparatus, and lays out a basket ball
court, but ordinarily there is neither playground nor
play apparatus.

Had the one-room rural schoolhouses built since 1908
been constructed with proper regard to Hghting, heating,
ventilation, sanitary arrangements, and educational re-
quirements, they would have served for many years to
come. As it is, they are so poor and frail that the invest-
ment in them, recent though it be, is an almost total
loss. Perhaps this initial waste was unavoidable. Prior
to 1908, the district was responsible for its schoolhouse;

Athletic Field, Consolidated Rural School

Teachers' Home, Consolidated Rural School

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 77

but thousands of districts evaded their responsibility.
Accordingly, when, in 1908, the county became respon-
sible for all rural schoolhouses, it became necessary to
rebuild almost the entire rural school plant. In many
counties this was literally done. With so much to do in
so short a time, the funds available were not sufficient
to pay for modern structures. In one sense, however,
the perishable and unsatisfactory form of construction
may prove a blessing in disguise — for well-built one-room
schoolhouses might have proved an obstacle to consolida-
tion. As conditions now are, new schoolhouses will have
to be built, and it will be better to consoHdate them than
to replace the one-room school.

Besides these one-room rural buildings, there are one
or more two-, three-, and even four-room schoolhouses
in almost every county of the state. Most of these larger
rural schoolhouses were formerly one-room structures,
to which one or more rooms, generally without cloak-
rooms, have been added. The new rooms are small,
badly Hghted, and, what is worse, so placed as frequently
to impair the lighting of the original room. (See illus-
trations opposite page 48.)

A second type comprises schoolhouses originally con-
structed with two or more rooms, generally with cloak-
rooms. In most instances such schoolhouses are but
old-type one-room structures placed end to end or side
by side, with an entrance hall near the center. (See
illustrations opposite page 56.) More recently some
two- and three-room schoolhouses of a more modern

78 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

type, though by no means fully modern, have been
erected. (See illustrations opposite page 64.) Yet,
whatever the type, the equipment and the grounds of
these larger rural schoolhouses differ Kttle from the
equipment and grounds of the one-room school.

The latest type of rural structure is the consoHdated
school, constructed within the last four or five years.
The best of them are of brick, and provide the usual class-
rooms, science laboratories, and auditorium. Few, how-
ever, have ample cloakrooms, and none inside lavatories
and toilets. They are fairly well equipped with physical
and educational apparatus, have rather ample grounds,
including demonstration farm and athletic field, and the
largest have teachers' homes. (See illustrations opposite
pages 68 and 76.) Even the smaller consoHdated schools
are brick or stucco, but they are not so well planned, or
so well equipped, having, as a rule, no demonstration
farm, athletic field, or teachers' home. (See illustra-
tions opposite page 84.)

These consoHdated schools, representing the high-
water mark of rural interest, are an indication of what
will probably become general within the next decade.
Unfortunately, few of them, whether large or small, are
well planned. The lower illustration opposite page 68
is probably the best of all the consoHdated structures
and is a creditable building; but in most instances,
whether because of a lack of knowledge or interest on
the part of the architect and the county superintendent,
local opposition, or lack of funds, even the new consoU-

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 79

dated school buildings fail to meet present-day stan-
dards.

GRADED DISTRICT SCHOOLHOUSES

In the smaller graded school districts, the building
situation is similar to that in the rural sections. The
two- and three-room schoolhouses were in most cases
originally one-room buildings, to which one or more
rooms have been attached, and are neither better nor
worse than the corresponding type of rural schoolhouse.
(See illustrations opposite page 56.) They are sim-
ilarly heated, equally poor in equipment, and without
satisfactory playgrounds. As in the rural districts, the
janitor work is usually done by the teachers, and in the
same inefficient manner. There are, however, in these
smaller graded school districts a few modern buildings
similar to the best in the rural sections. (See illustrations
opposite page 64.)

A second type, to be found in the larger graded school
districts, is the big, rambling, frame structure. (See
illustrations opposite page 90.) These buildings present
no points of superiority over the one-room rural school-
house. They are frequently dirtier, certainly noisier,
and in many cases involve a serious fire hazard.

A third type is the old, prison-style, brick structure,
which violates every principle of fighting, ventilation,
heating, and sanitation. (See illustrations opposite
page 94.) While some of them are picturesquely lo-
cated, they almost invariably lack adequate playgrounds.

8o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

Only a few of the larger graded school districts have
anything approaching modern structures. Their best
buildings provide classrooms, laboratories, and audi-
toriums, and now and then inside lavatories and toilets.
They are fairly well equipped, have playgrounds, and
in some instances demonstration farms. (See illustra-
tions opposite page io8.) Such schools reflect great
credit upon the respective communities, and furnish a
model that ought to be widely imitated.

Out of the 316 graded school districts, there are prob-
ably not more than twenty that possess satisfactory
school facilities. The others have insanitary, unhy-
gienic structures which would be condemned, if the state
board of education imposed reasonable standards upon
the independent districts.

CITY SCHOOLHOUSES

Of city school buildings, 40 per cent, are old structures
erected prior to 1890. They are, as a rule, inadequately
Hghted and ventilated, mostly heated by steam or hot air,
but occasionally by individual stoves. They constitute
an extreme fire hazard by reason of their size, their
height, the narrowness of corridor and stairway, and
lack of fireproof construction. The classrooms are
usually without cloakrooms, and only now and then is
there an auditorium. In most of them cheap water
toilets have been installed. Many of these old build-
ings are unfit for school use, and should be replaced as
soon as possible. (See illustrations opposite page 114.)

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 8i

A second group, including buildings erected between
1890 and 19 10, mark only a slight improvement over
their predecessors. Though they will of necessity have
to be used for some years, yet, ignoring as they do all
considerations of health and physical development, they
cannot be said to be adequate for present needs. (See
illustrations opposite page 120.)

The newer city school buildings, erected mainly since
1910, may be divided into two classes: First, those in
which a partially successful effort was made to construct
well-planned and well-arranged schoolhouses, with the
result that the buildings are modern in some respects,
and in other respects no better than the older structures,
the lighting in particular in most of them being ex-
tremely poor. (See illustrations opposite page 128.)
In the second group are buildings that compare favor-
ably with the best elsewhere. The lighting is good,
they are heated by steam, artificially ventilated, pro-
vided with the usual classrooms, cloakrooms, labora-
tories, and workshops, generally with auditorium and
gymnasium, and occasionally with swimming pools.
(See illustrations opposite pages 136 and 144.)

The buildings of the cities were erected mostly before
the value of free play and athletics was appreciated, and
so are without adequate grounds. Certain cities (for
example, Louisville and Hopkinsville) are making con-
siderable sacrifices to provide their newer structures with
plenty of play space, but in most of the cities costly mod-
ern structures are still being built on inadequate space.

82 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

COLORED SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Thus far we have discussed only school buildings for
white children. A word will suffice for the colored
schools.

In the rural sections there is little difference between
the buildings for white children and those for colored chil-
dren, though the buildings for colored children are, as a
rule, sHghtly inferior to those for white children. Yet
some of the best one-room rural buildings — these in-
clude the new Rosenwald schools — are for colored chil-
dren. (See illustrations opposite page i6o.)

It is in the graded school districts and in the cities
that the greatest disparity is noted. In Louisville, Hop-
kinsville, Lexington, and Paducah, there are a few well-
built Negro schools (see illustrations opposite page 176);
elsewhere, colored children are generally housed in
dilapidated frame buildings of the type to be seen in the
illustration opposite page 90, or in old-type brick struc-
tures, such as are shown opposite page 94. These
colored school buildings are not only dilapidated, unhy-
gienic, and insanitary, but they are excessively crowded.
In most cities there is imperative need of a complete
new school plant for colored children.

SUMMARY

The schoolhouse situation for the entire state may be
summarized as follows:
The entire rural school plant, with the exception of a

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 83

few small rural schoolhouses recently constructed and the
new consolidated schools, needs to be rebuilt. In the
Bluegrass sections, in the western counties, and here and
there in the mountain regions, one-room rural school-
houses should be displaced by consolidated schools.
Where it is necessary to maintain one-room schools, as
will always be the case in the mountain and in a number
of the Knob counties, the present shacks should be re-
placed as rapidly as possible by modern structures, well
lighted, heated, and ventilated, containing not only the
usual classroom, but also cloakrooms, a small room for
cooking, a small room for agriculture and manual train-
ing, and sanitary lavatory and toilet facilities. There
should also be a well, a coal shed, and a horse shed.

The grounds of most rural schools, whether one-teacher
schools or consolidated schools, and of most graded school
and city school districts should be enlarged and im-
proved. The grounds of one-teacher schools should be
ample for free play and agricultural demonstration beds ;
those of all rural consolidated and graded district
schools should also provide an athletic field large enough
for base-ball, foot-ball, tennis and other sports. Each
separate city should have its playgrounds and there
should be one or more centrally located athletic fields
for common use.

In the graded school districts, whether these continue
to be independent or are brought under the control of the
county board of education, the schoolhouses, with hardly
a score of exceptions, are totally inadequate both for

84 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

white and colored children, and need complete recon-
struction.

Finally, the cities need to have a large part of their
old buildings replaced, and in most instances completely
new facihties for colored children.

The schoolhouse situation is thus extremely bad.
Surely education in cleanliness, orderliness, respect for
property, modesty, physical well-being, and hygienic
Kving is an essential part of the school's task; yet the
great majority of the children of the state, both white
and colored, are housed year after year in structures
that themselves violate every maxim that education
should directly and indirectly impress upon the child.

Nor is the educational loss the only loss suffered. For
within the last twenty years Kentucky has also lost
through poor schoolhouse planning and construction
probably the greater part of $10,000,000.

The authorities have not been unaware of these con-
ditions. Repeated efforts have been made to improve
them. As early as 1845, the state superintendent was
required to provide local authorities with appropriate
schoolhouse plans. Obedient to this requirement, which
is still in force, the state superintendent issues such plans
at intervals. In 1898 the county superintendents were
required to approve all building plans; and in 1920, the
approval of the state superintendent was required. But
these provisions have been utterly ineffective. The ap-
proval of an untrained and unassisted county superin-
tendent is a meaningless formality; and almost equally

II n II H il li IS •<

J . f

1" B*

-* ». »K

Consolidated Rural Schoolhouses of Poorer Tj'pe

BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT 85

empty is the approval of a state superintendent who
has at his disposal neither expert advice nor supervisory
aid. The situation will not be adequately met until
the state department of education is equipped to prepare
schoolhouse plans and to supervise schoolhouse construc-
tion. Such a division would cost about $10,000 a year.
Would Kentucky lose or gain in the long run, if, at an
expenditure of $10,000 a year, it could protect the invest-
ment of millions in substantial school buildings?

VI. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TERM AND
COURSE OF STUDY

LET us pause for a moment to review school condi-
tions in Kentucky, as far as we have now uncov-
-^ ered them.
We have found that the state board, as at present con-
stituted, does not function and cannot possibly func-
tion; that the state superintendent, poKtically chosen
and without adequate staff or funds, cannot, if he would,
conceive and pursue a far-reaching scheme of education-
al development; that the county superintendents, mostly
untrained, usually lack expert aid of any kind; that the
teachers are mostly untrained and underpaid; and that
the two great normal schools are graduating annually
only a small body of well- trained elementary teachers;
that many school buildings are unfit to house school
children. We are in position to guess the quality of
education which the school children of Kentucky receive
under these untoward conditions ; but we have not even
yet exhausted their enumeration.

LENGTH OF TERM IN RURAL SCHOOLS

The Kttle that an untrained teacher might accomplish
under these unfavorable conditions is still further re-

86

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 87

duced by the shortness of the rural school term and the
defects of the rural school course of study.

The length of term in graded and city schools com-
pares favorably with the length of term in villages and
cities elsewhere. As a rule, graded and city schools are
in session for nine months, though a few of the smaller
cities have eight months, and some of the smaller graded
school districts six or seven. A school year of nine
months is generally accepted as satisfactory.

Contrast conditions in the rural schools, attended by
441,440 out of 646,559, or 68 per cent., of the children of
school age. The rural term, with exceptions to be pointed
out later, is six months in length; not, however, six cal-
endar months, but six months of twenty school days,
or 120 school days in all. From this is to be sub-
tracted, generally, five days taken out for institute work
by the teachers, and two legal holidays, so that the
actual rural school term is approximately 113 days. This
inadequate, school term places rural children at a great
disadvantage as compared with their less numerous con-
temporaries in city and graded districts. For example,
in the graded and city school districts children have, as
a rule, during the eight years of the elementary course a
total of 72 months of schooling, whereas rural children
have ordinarily only 48 months. Working under this
handicap, county children must either do one third more
work in a given period than graded and city school chil-
dren, or take twelve instead of eight years to complete the
elementary school program. Few rural children are able

88 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

to remain in school so long, and few are able to do more in
a given period than their graded school and city cousins.
The result is that rural school children are actually re-
ceiving on the average even less than two-thirds as much
elementary education as graded and city school children.

Aware of this injustice, the legislature in 1914 pro-
vided that the common school term should be extended
from six to seven months whenever the superintendent
of pubHc instruction declared a per capita from the
common school fund of not less than I4.75 for each child
of school age, and that the term should be extended to
eight months whenever the per capita distribution de-
clared was over $5.35. The per capita distribution has
not been less than $4.75 since 191 6, but somehow or
other the common school term was not extended.

Again, in 19 18 the general assembly provided for the
extension of the common school term to seven or eight
months "when the resources of the school fund or con-
tributions by local taxation or donations shall justify
such extension." Though the per capita distribution for
1920 and 192 1 was $6.10, the common school term has
not been generally extended, partly because the cost of
education simultaneously increased, partly because the
law failed to require local authorities to raise their part
of the needed funds. It is, however, gratifying to re-
port that 12 counties^ have themselves extended the

iBoone, Campbell, Kenton, Mason, Henderson, Jefferson, Robertson,
Washington, Fayette, Woodford, Clark, Union. There may be still
others, but these are all that our returns show.

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 89

rural term to seven, eight, or nine months, the cost being
borne entirely by local taxation. Twenty-three (23)
other counties,^ though unwilhng or unable to bear the
entire burden from taxation, are encouraging local dis-
tricts to extend the school term, partly through taxation
and partly through subscription. In mining sections the
entire cost is generally borne by one or more corpora-
tions.

The cost of a longer rural school term is a serious ques-
tion for many counties. This problem will be consid-
ered when we come to deal with school finance. But
it is not simply a question of money; ''the children,"
we are told, "are needed on the farm." At times this
may be true, and the compulsory attendance laws should
to some extent recognize seasonal needs. But the
counties that already operate the longer term prove be-
yond all doubt that Kentucky farmers, like farmers
in other states, can keep their children regularly at school
throughout the longer school year, and that they will
do so if the right sort of school is provided.

ATTENDANCE IN RURAL SCHOOLS

Irregularity of attendance also affects the results
achieved by the rural schools. An attendance of 59
per cent, for 1918-1919, and of 71 per cent, in 1920-1921,
is almost prohibitive of good school work. An attend-

^Bracken, Bullitt, Carlisle, Davies, Fulton, Grayson, Harlan, Henry,
Hickman, Hopkins, Lee, Letcher, McCreary, Marion, Marshall, Mont-
gomery, Nelson, Owen, Perry, Pulaski, Shelby, Spencer, and Todd.

90 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

ance of 71 per cent, means that on the average more
than half the children are absent more than half the
time, and therefore receive less than 60 days of instruc-
tion annually. Even these 60 days are not continuous,
as children are in school today, out tomorrow, in school
this week, and out of school the next. For example, in
November and early December, 1920, "B" was in
school eight days, out three, in two, out two, in one, out
five, in two, out three, and then dropped out altogether.
When attendance is 71 per cent, for the year, it does
not necessarily run 71 per cent, for each of the months
of the year. It varies from month to month, for exam-
ple, as follows:

lverage attendance

SCHOOL

SCHOOL

SCHOOL C

IN 1920-21 during:

A

B

(colored;

July

83%

80%

78%

August

71

81

66

September

66

68

55

October

44

59

47

November

II

36

45

December

23

27

16

In each of these instances, attendance in the first one or
two months is good, and this is generally true for the
state, but thereafter it decreases month by month so that
by the end of the school term it has fallen very low.
When attendance runs low (for example, 40 per cent.) the
difficulty that the teacher faces can be readily appreciated

Large Frame Schoolhouses of Graded School Districts

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 91

from the following table, which shows the distribution of
attendance for a school month of 19 days in 1920 and an
enrollment of 34 children:

NUMBER OF PUPILS

NUMBER OF DAYS ATTENDED

3

19

2

18

I

17

2

16

2

15

I

14

2

13

2

10

3

9

I

8

I

7

2

6

I

2

I

I

10

0

That is, 3 pupils attended school 19 days, 2 attended 18
days, 2 attended 10 days, and 10 out of the 34 enrolled
did not attend at all!

The question of better attendance has been recently
agitated. The first compulsory, school law, passed in
1896, required all children between the ages of seven and
fourteen to attend school at least eight weeks continu-
ously during the school term. But no provisions were
made for its enforcement through attendance officers.

92 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

School trustees were expected to enforce the law, which,
of course, they seldom did or could.

From time to time since 1896, the compulsory atten-
dance laws both for rural and city districts have been
improved. The cities and graded school districts have
had a good law since 1910; in 1920 a new, but loosely
drawn, county law was enacted. It fixed no age limits
between which rural children must attend school, and it
failed to stipulate the maximum fine to be imposed for
violations. Nevertheless, this law, right in principle
though defective in details, has demonstrated two things :
First, country people will send their children to school if
they think they have to do so. For example, the average
daily attendance in rural schools increased from 59 per
cent, in 1917-1918 to 71 per cent, in 1920-1921. Second,
the operation of the law reveals the weakness of county
and magisterial courts as enforcement agencies. County
judges and magistrates are so intimately connected with
local affairs, and under so many personal obhgations, that
they cannot be relied on to prosecute their neighbors for
failure to send their children to school. Weak as the
county and magisterial courts are as enforcement agen-
cies, it is nevertheless probably necessary to use them.

MONTHS SCHOOLS ARE OPEN

There is still another factor which affects unfavorably
the achievements of rural schools.

Kentucky rural schools generally begin early in July
and are over by the first of the new year. Road condi-

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 93

tions are more favorable to good attendance in these
months than in any other months of the year, but July
and August are unfortunately the hottest months of the
year — outside the mountains, frequently so hot that it is
next to impossible for days at a time to do good school
work. The mountain sections offer a pecuHar problem
by reason of the poor roads; but outside of the mountains,
road conditions are scarcely worse in Kentucky than
in neighboring states, and there is no reason why the
schools should be open in July and August. In counties
which have extended the term to eight or nine months,
the schools usually open in September and close the
first of May or June. All things considered, the atten-
dance in these schools is as good in the winter months
as in the early fall and late spring months. However,
if a school term of eight or nine months were provided in
the mountain regions, it would probably be necessary,
on account of road conditions, to have schools open in
July, as now, run through December, open again the first
of April, and close late in June.

RURAL SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY

Rural schools, particularly the one-teacher schools, are
further embarrassed by their extended and compHcated
program of studies. In early days, common school
instruction was confined almost exclusively to reading,
writing, and arithmetic. In fact, as late as 1852 it was
not permissible to go beyond the elements of a "plain
education in EngHsh, including grammar, arithmetic, and

94 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

geography." History was added in 1864, and after 1865
other languages and sciences might be taught. In 1884
physiology and hygiene were added, civil government in
1889, history of Kentucky in 1893, elementary agriculture
in 1918, and physical education in 1920; so that the
program of the common school, according to the law, now
consists of:

SpelKng Geography

Reading United States history

Writing Kentucky history

Arithmetic Physiology and hygiene

EngHsh grammar Civil government

Composition Agriculture

Physical education

Besides the above, the elementary course of study in-
cludes certain special subjects, recently added. In 1918,
for example, one day each year was set apart for teaching
temperance; in 1920 a half hour a week was dedicated
to teaching "kindness and justice to, and humane treat-
ment and protection of, animals and birds, and the im-
portant part they play in the economy of nature." It
was also provided in that year that fifteen minutes per
week should be given to teaching thrift and industry.

The elementary course of study has thus grown from
year to year, and will probably continue to grow. The
state board of education has already added nature study,
music, and drawing in the course it prescribes. The
burden of carrying such a program, heavy for graded and

Old-Style Brick Schoolhouses of Graded School Districts

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 95

city school teachers, who seldom instruct more than two
different grades, is absurd and impossible in rural schools,
where in nine schools out of ten one teacher teaches all
eight grades. Let us stop for a moment to visuahze
this educational situation: A young, untrained, and
undirected teacher holds school during 113 days out of
365; her school includes children from six to sixteen years
of age; they are divided into not less than seven classes
and attend with distracting irregularity; she is somehow
expected, nevertheless, to teach to every age group in
these seven unstable classes a half dozen to a dozen differ-
ent subjects!

To make matters worse, the present course of study
outKnes for the six months' school about the same amount
as is prescribed for the graded and city schools, which are
in session from eight to ten months. This means one of
two things: Either rural children must be carried hur-
riedly along if the prescribed work is to be covered, or the
teacher, failing in this, follows her own ideas of what
should be attempted. Obviously, the rural school must
have a simphfied program adapted to rural needs. There
should be fewer studies, the subject matter should be
reduced to the minimum essentials, better organized,
and taught more interestingly and thoroughly.

GRADED A2TO CITY SCHOOLS

Graded and city schools suffer under some, but not all,
of the handicaps affecting rural schools. Their school
year is usually of reasonable length. They can classify

96 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

their pupils more easily according to achievement, and
can usually provide a separate teacher for each grade; in
many instances they are also able to departmentalize
instruction from the sixth grade on; that is, to assign one
teacher to reading, another to arithmetic, another to
geography, history, etc., each one teaching pupils of
several grades in her special subject.

Graded and city school districts are, however, like rural
schools, handicapped by poor attendance. The atten-
dance in these schools in the elementary grades should
approximate 90 per cent. As a matter of fact, during
the year 1 920-1 921 graded school district attendance was
only 75 per cent., and city school attendance, 76 per cent.
— an extremely poor showing.

Graded and city schools are also in some cases handi-
capped, particularly in the lower grades, by a short
school day. In most graded school districts and cities
the school day is, as is customary elsewhere, six hours in
length, with an hour or a little more for lunch. But
some graded and city schools have a day, particularly for
the first three grades, that permits of scarcely more than
four hours for instruction, and this in a single long session.
The children come to school at eight-thirty, and remain
until one o'clock, with a short recess for a quick lunch.
In so short a school day it is impossible to meet the re-
quirements of modern primary work. The result is that
hundreds of children are retarded in the lower grades,
and even when they are advanced they are often poorly
prepared to do the work of the next classes. Graded and

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 97

city school districts should be required by law to have a
school day of not less than five and a half or six hours.
The work cannot be done in shorter time.

SUMMARY

Thus, the conditions under which rural schools work
preclude satisfactory results. Even when other condi-
tions have been improved — when the teachers are better
trained and better supervised, and better facilities have
been provided— children cannot be satisfactorily taught
until the school term is extended to nine months, until
rural school attendance is greatly improved, and until a
simplified program, adapted to rural conditions, is pre-
scribed. Nor will results ever be satisfactory in many
graded school districts and cities, until there is better
attendance and a longer school day.

VII. PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION

UP TO this point we have been engaged in describ-
ing the schools of Kentucky. Let us now con-
sider their efficiency.
There are two common ways of measuring the effici-
ency of schools: First, by ascertaining how many of the
enrolled pupils complete the course; second, by ascertain-
ing through tests and examinations how much the pupils
know and what they can do at the end of the complete
elementary school course. We shall use both methods
in order to appraise the pubKc schools of Kentucky.

GRADES COMPLETED

To find how long Kentucky children remain in school
and how far they advance in the course of instruction,
information with respect to ages of pupils and the grades
in which they were studying was obtained from 47 cities,
222 graded districts, and 9 counties. These returns
indicate that almost all the pupils remain in school until
they are fourteen years of age. Thereafter pupils drop
out rapidly and by the time they are fifteen nearly one-
third of them have left school. Rural and city schools
do about equally well. (See Figure 3.)

.But rural school children are not as far advanced in the
school course as are city school children of the same age.

98

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loo PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

It is generally agreed that pupils should begin the first
grade when they are between six and seven years of age,
and advance a grade each year so that they will enter
the eighth grade when they are between thirteen and
fourteen years old.

When this standard is appHed to Kentucky pupils, it
is found that 47 per cent, of those in the city schools,
53 per cent, of those in the graded districts, and 59 per
cent, of those in the rural schools are too old for their
grades. Conditions, especially in rural schools, are even
worse than the bare percentages indicate. For, of the
9,067 rural school pupils reported behind their proper
grades, 9 per cent, are four or more years behind, iiper
cent, are three years behind, 19 per cent., two years be-
hind, 27 per cent., one year behind, and 34 per cent, less
than one year behind. The corresponding percentages
in the same order for city school pupils are 4, 6, 14, 27,
and 49. Obviously city school children fare much better
than country children. (See Table IV, Appendix.)

The full effect of the failure of pupils to advance regu-
larly through the course of instruction is shown in Figure
4. In this figure pupils who were between thirteen and
fourteen years old when they entered school in the fall
of 1920 are distributed by the grades they entered. If
these children had begun school when between six and
seven years old and had then advanced a grade each
year, all of them in 1920 should have been in the eighth
grade. As it is, only 1 2 per cent, of the rural children
of these ages are in the eighth or any higher grade.

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I02 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

The remainder were distributed among the other seven
grades, with 29 per cent, in the fifth grade. Conditions
in the cities are much better, with 37 per cent, in the
eighth and higher grades.

Because so many children fail to advance regularly
and are so far behind, large numbers of them leave school
before completing even the elementary school course.
In rural schools, nearly a third of the pupils stop with
only a fifth grade education, half of them do not go be-
yond the seventh grade, not more than 15 per cent, enter
high school, and less than 5 per cent, finish high school.
City schools carry their pupils much further. Not more
than 10 per cent, of the city pupils drop out at the end of
the fifth grade, two-thirds of them reach the eighth grade,
and more than 20 per cent, complete high school. (See
Figure 5.)

Pupils who leave school at the end of the fifth or sixth
grade have had only the drudgery connected with learning
the simplest skills, viz., reading, writing, and arithmetic.
And, worst of all, they do not carry away a mastery even
of these simple skills so that they can freely use them in
later life. Large numbers of rural children therefore miss
altogether the richer portions of the school course.

WHAT CHILDREN GET

To find out what children know and can do, 16,700
pupils were given written examinations,^ and nearly

iThe giving of the tests in the various counties and cities was under
the direction of representatives from the University of Kentucky, the

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I04 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

59,000 test papers from these pupils were marked and the
results tabulated. The tests were given in the subdis-
trict or rural schools and in the graded district schools of
nine counties — Carlisle, Clark, Hardin, Letcher, Logan, .
Mason, Russell, Union, and Washington. Each of these
counties is typical of its section. The school officials
consulted agreed that the results from these counties
would fairly represent the state. Tests were also given
in fifteen cities — Lexington, Newport, and Paducah of the
second class; Ashland, BowKng Green, Frankfort, and
Henderson of the third class; and Danville, EKzabeth-
town, Georgetown, Maysville, Morganfield, Mt. SterHng,
Russell ville, and Winchester of the fourth class.

In order that the results might be as representative as
possible, efforts were made to test the pupils of every school
in the above named counties and cities. The only schools
not tested were those which could not be tested because
they were closed. The tests were given mainly during
the week beginning November 28, 1920. The exceptions
were the cities of Lexington, Newport, Danville, BowKng
Green, and Georgetown, in all of which the testing was
done nearer the mid-year period. The results represent,
therefore, for most of the small rural schools end-of-the-

Eastem and Western State Normal Schools, Georgetown College, Berea
College, Centre College, University of Louisville, Transylvania College,
Kentucky Wesleyan College, and from the state department of education.
The tests were given by students from the above named institutions
and by county and city superintendents. More than 40 superintendents
and 75 students participated.

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION 105

year products; for the larger rural and for city schools,
mid-year products.

While the tests were given in all grades from the third
to the eighth, the papers marked and tabulated came
from the fifth, seventh, and eighth grades. The fifth
grade results were selected because they are an index
of the achievements of the large number of children who
drop out of school at the end of this grade. The eighth
grade results, on the other hand, represent the maximum
elementary school product, or the work of those fortunate
enough to complete the common school course. Seventh
grade results were included so that Kentucky school work
might be compared with that of North Carolina and
Virginia, states in which the elementary course runs for
only seven years.

THE TESTS

In the elementary schools, tests were given in reading,
spelling, arithmetic, and history.

READING

The reading test used was devised to find out how well
pupils understand what they read. It consists of eleven
paragraphs, with three or four questions on each para-
graph. Good third grade pupils should easily read the
first of the paragraphs given and answer the questions
concerning it. The other paragraphs are successively
more difficult until the last is hard enough for high school
pupils.

The reading test has been used with pupils in many

io6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

other school systems, so that it is known what scores
pupils of the several grades should make. For example, pu-
pils completing the fourth grade and ready to begin fifth
grade work should make an average score of 41.8; pupils
half way through the fifth grade should make an average
of 44.9. There are similar standards for all other grades.

Fifth grade pupils from one-room schools, more than
half way through the grade, made an average score in
reading of 37.0, which represents a quality of work
usually done by pupils beginning the fourth grade.
Hence, Kentucky's rural fifth grade pupils in one-room
schools are a year and a half below the standard reached
in other states. City pupils half way through the fifth
grade made a score of 42.3, which is about the score that
pupils beginning the fifth grade should make. Hence,
Kentucky's city fifth grade pupils are a half year below
standard. Similar comparisons show that rural eighth
grade pupils in one-room schools are two years and a
half, and city eighth grade pupils more than a year, below
the standard reached in other states. (See Table VI,
Appendix.)

Other comparisons based wholly on the returns ob-
tained from Kentucky schools make it clear that the
small rural schools of the state are getting results in read-
ing which are a full year behind those of the city schools.
For example, eighth grade pupils tested in one-room
schools made an average reading score of 47.5, which is
3.2 points below the score of city seventh grade pupils.

These comparisons are entirely fair to the rural schools

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION

107

and somewhat unfair to the city schools, since the scores
of city pupils represent the work of pupils only half way

1 teacher

schools

1 year

Years Behind
2 years 3 yeors 4 years

2 teacher
schools

3 teacher
schools

4 teacher
school s

5 teacher
schools

6 or more
teacher

schools

Negro rural
schools

Negro city
schools

Years
over age

Years behind in
arithmetic and
reading

Figure 6. The number of years which fifth grade white and Negro
rural pupils, and Negro city pupils, are behind city white pupils when
results of arithmetic and reading tests and ages of pupils are considered.

through their respective grades and the scores of a ma-
jority of the rural pupils represent the work of pupils
nearly at the end of their grades.

io8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

The real situation with respect to the work of the rural
schools, however, is not revealed unless the ages of the

1 teacher
schools

2 teacher
schools

3 teacher
schools

1 year

Years Behind
2 years 3 years 4 years

4 teacher
schools

5 teacher
schools

schools

Hegro rural
schools

Negro city
schools

Years
over age

Years hehmd in
arithmetic and
reading

Figure 7. The number of years which eighth grade white and Negro
rural pupils, and Negro city pupils, are behind city white pupils when
results of arithmetic and reading tests and ages of pupils are considered.

pupils are considered in connection with their achieve-
ments. Pupils in the city schools and in the larger rural
schools are younger grade for grade than the pupils in the

Graded School District Schoolhouscs of Ik^tter Type

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION 109

small rural schools. Rural fifth grade children are on
the average a year and seven months older than city
children. In the eighth grade there is a difference of
thirteen months. (See Table V, Appendix.) When
differences in age, and the combined achievements in
reading and arithmetic are taken into account, rural
children in one-room schools are really two and a half
years behind city children. Though the tests show steady
improvement as the number of teachers increases,
even so, rural schools with six or more teachers are
two-thirds of a year behind city schools. (Figures 6
and 7.)

When the work of rural pupils of any grade is compared
with the wcrk of city pupils of the same grade it must
be admitted that the comparison is between two groups
not equally well defined. To permit a comparison be-
tween two definite groups, the average reading scores
were computed for all thirteen-year-old children in grades
3 to 8 in one-room schools and in city schools. (See
Table VII, Appendix.) The reading score of 38.1 which
was made by thirteen-year-old children from the one-
room schools represents work normally done by children
less than ten years old; the score of 48.8 made by city
thirteen-year-olds represents a quality of work a little
better than that usually done by twelve-year-old pupils.
Again, the achievements of the rural thirteen-year-olds
are about what could be expected of pupils beginning the
fourth grade (nine to ten years of a,ge) and the achieve-
ments of the city thirteen-year-olds are about what could

no PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

be expected of beginning sixth grade pupils (eleven to
twelve years old) . Rural pupils of this age are, therefore,
from two to two and a half years behind the city
pupils.

Measured by what city pupils do, it is evident that the
rural schools of the state, especially the small ones, fail
miserably in teaching their pupils to read. It is not
too much to ask that the rural children of Kentucky
should approach more closely to the performance of the
city children, especially as the results in reading even
in the city schools of Kentucky are, in general, a year
below the standard of similar schools in other states.
Schools that can get no better results in reading than
these are unable to prevent illiteracy, and it is, not sur-
prising that Kentucky stands among the states today
practically where it stood twenty years ago in the rela-
tive amoimt of illiteracy.

HISTORY

History is taught for two purposes — ^first, that children
may know outstanding events, second that they may be
able to think about important questions adapted to their
years. The test was so constructed as to deal with both
objects. Pupils were, for example, asked why they
celebrate the Fourth of July; they were also asked to read
and interpret a simple passage deahng with historic
events. In order to answer correctly, they had, of course,
to read and to understand what they had Just read; but

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION m

as they read poorly, they were bound to make a poor
showing in history. (See Table VIII, Appendix.) On
the basis of results obtained in other states, eighth grade
pupils of one-room schools in Kentucky answered fewer
fact questions than sLxth grade children of good schools
elsewhere, and they made almost a complete failure in
questions requiring interpretation of the passage to be
read. In fact, a fifth of the eighth grade pupils examined
failed to answer correctly a single question requiring
thought. Though the scores of city eighth grade pupils
both in the fact and thought questions were considerably
higher than the rural school scores, even they did not come
up to the standard reached by city school children in
other states.

SPELLING

To find out how well the elementary schools teach
spelling, two lists of twenty words each were pronounced
to the pupils, which they were asked to write. The
following words were used for the fifth grade: animal,
barrel, beauty, famous, careful, break, crowd, election, ex-
ample, friendship, gentlemen, headache, holiday, owner,
property, question, ribbon, saddle, skirt, desire. The list
for the seventh grade included, announcement, appear-
ance, arrangement, attendance, ballot, response, cordial,
customary, disease, enormous, excellent, familiar, individ-
ual, interfere, science, mechanical, necessary, original, prob-
ably, planned.

These are all common words and should be familiar

112 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

to the pupils of Kentucky. Of the twenty words given
to the fifth grade, eighteen are taught below the fifth
grade. Two of the words, headache audi friendship , are
not studied until the sixth grade. Of the words given
to the seventh and eighth grade pupils, five are first
studied in the fourth grade, six in the fifth, three in the
sixth, and three in the seventh. Three words, individual,
mechanical, and response, are not in their spelKng books.
With the exception of three words, the pupils were not
asked to spell any word which they were not required by
the state course of study to learn — to learn, indeed, as a
rule, before reaching the grade to which the test was
given.

What were the results?

While in other parts of the country, fifth grade pupils
on the average spell correctly 15 out of 20 of the words
given, in rural schools of Kentucky, the children spell on
the average less than ten of them correctly; eighth grade
pupils in the small country schools did little better than
city seventh grade pupils. The average for each of
the grades tested in cities falls almost a full grade
below what it should have been. (See Table IX, Ap-
pendix.)

ARITHMETIC

In arithmetic pupils were examined in addition and
multipHcation. The tests consisted of series of problems
which began with very simple ones and advanced to more

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION 113

difficult ones.
in addition :

2

3

The following are representative of those

23

25

16

00
75
33
16

94

32

49
28

63
95
69
22

33
36
01

56
88

75
56
10
18
56

The following are representative of those in multiplica-
tion:
3x7= so 8754 16

3 82!

2I X 3^ =

The results of the arithmetic tests in general do not
vary from those of the other tests. (See Tables X and
XI, Appendix.) City fifth grade pupils did addition
work which was about three-quarters of a year below
what should normally be expected of them. City eighth

114 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

grade addition scores were about a year behind the aver-
age achievement of pupils in other states. Rural schools
did very poor work in addition. The addition scores
taken in connection with the ages of the pupils indicate
that the addition work of fifth and eighth grades in the
one-room schools is about two and three-quarter years
behind that of the same city grades. City schools did
about the same quahty of work in multipHcation that they
did in addition, but the rural schools did better in mul-
tiplication. Nevertheless, fifth and eighth grade pupils
from one-room schools made average scores which show
that they are more than two grades below city pupils of
these grades.

HANDWRITING

No formal measurement of handwriting was attempted,
but a simple measure was applied to the writing of third
and fourth grade pupils: Did they write their names on
the test papers clearly enough to be read? Of the 1,929
third grade pupils, 412, or 21 per cent., failed to write
their names so that they could be deciphered. Of the
1,290 names on fourth grade papers, 73, or 6 per cent.,
could not be read. This, after three and four years in
school!

PROPORTION OF PUPILS REACHING STANDARD SCORES

The foregoing discussion is based mainly on average
scores of pupils in the different grades and in the different
types of schools. Variations in scores of individual pu-
pils above and below the average have been disregarded.

I, ;.;iHllimillll

Old-Style Schoolhouses of City School Districts

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION 115

Table XII of the Appendix presents some of these varia-
tions. The first step in preparing this table was to de-
termine the percentage of eighth grade pupils who made
scores in reading and arithmetic up to or above the nor-
mal scores for tliis grade, and the percentage who made
scores at all below normal, below more than one year,
two, three, four, or five years. These percentages were
then averaged. The results in this form show perhaps
better than average scores how poor is the work of the
small rural school.

Only one eighth grade pupil in ten from the one-room
schools, it will be observed, had scores up to normal.
The other nine did work which was from less than one
grade to more than five grades below standard. In con-
trast, of every ten city pupils three made scores up to or
above the score normally expected of good eighth grade
pupils, while seven had lower scores. Nearly two-thirds
of the pupils from one-room schools were below the sixth
grade standard, while only slightly more than a third of
city eighth grade children fell so low. Forty-one per
cent, of rural pupils and 13 per cent, of city pupils were
below the fifth grade standard; 24 per cent, of rural pupils
and 6 per cent, of city pupils were below fourth grade
standard; and six per cent, of rural pupils, but almost no
city pupils were below the third grade standard.

RESULTS OF TESTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

It needs no argument to show that the small rural
schools of Kentucky do very poor work. In no county was

ii6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the average achievement of pupils from one-room schools
in any grade or in any subject as good as the achievement
of city pupils, which is usually inferior to that of similar
pupils in other states. In general, the achievements of
rural pupils were so poor that such pupils will need one,
two, or more years of additional training before they can
equal the performance of city pupils of the same grade in
Kentucky. The results from these rural schools would
be bad enough if a minority of Kentucky children were
educated in them. Unfortunately, one-half of the chil-
dren of the state and three-fourths of all the rural chil-
dren attend one-room schools.

Results from the larger subdistrict and graded district
schools are better, but still not satisfactory. In general,
the more teachers there are in a school, and the longer the
school year, the better the achievement of the pupils.
The best results are obtained in the large, well organized
city schools.

NEGRO SCHOOLS

The scores of the tests given in Negro rural and city
schools are considerably lower than those from the
corresponding white schools. Negro pupils in city schools
did better work than Negro pupils in the rural schools,
but the difference between the work of these two groups
is not nearly so great as the difference between the work
of city and rural white pupils. City Negro pupils in the
three grades for which the results were tabulated did
work which was about equal to that done by the

PUPIL PROGRESS AND INSTRUCTION 117

white pupils of the same grades in the rural one-room
schools.

SUMMARY

On the basis of the foregoing tests, it appears that the
city elementary schools are below the standard reached
in other states in some cases as much as a year. The
showing of the rural elementary schools, especially of the
one-room rural schools, is wretchedly poor; they are
generally two to three years below standard.

In a word, the unsatisfactory conditions in respect to
the organization and administration of the public schools
of Kentucky have their inevitable result. Politics, lack
of training, lack of interest combine to render the schools
of Kentucky among the very poorest that, up to this
time, have been tested.

VIII. HIGH SCHOOLS

OUTSIDE the cities and a few progressive graded
school districts, the Kentucky high school is a
distinctly recent development. Prior to 1908,
there were approximately 100 high schools in the state — ■
practically none of them in the country. The law of
1908 created the rural high school, and that of 19 16 was
intended to procure high school opportunities for graded
school children. As a result of these acts high schools
rapidly multiplied.

There were in 1921, 404^^ white and 28 colored public
high schools in the state, the white public high schools en-
rolling, in 1920-1921, 25,939 pupils, the colored, 1,446. In
June 1921, the white high schools graduated 2,952 pupils,
the colored, 161. Of the 326 high schools established
since 1908, 82 are under the control of county boards of
education. Rural children, however, have access to
more than 82 schools. The law of 1908, requiring county
boards to estabhsh high schools, permitted them to enter
into contract with city and graded school districts to pro-
vide rural children with high school instruction. One

^There were probably 1 7 more white high schools, but the state depart-
ment of education has no reports from them.

118

HIGH SCHOOLS ng

hundred and forty-eight (148) such contracts are now in
force, so that, altogether, rural children have access to
230 high schools.

QUALITY OF HIGH SCHOOLS

The rural high school should freely recognize the inter-
ests and needs of rural life. Unfortunately for this con-
ception of high school education, there are only 82 high
schools which are under the direct control of county boards
of education and can be made distinctively rural. The
other 148 open to rural children are located either in cities
or towns and villages, chiefly in the latter. These town
and \dllage high schools follow courses of study that lead
cityward. The cooperation of rural districts and towns
and ^dllages in the establishment of high schools is on the
whole desirable, for a better school can be created through
joint effort than either party could maintain alone; it is
important, however, that the curriculum of the joint
school should take account of the rural factor — an en-
tirely feasible undertaking.

So recent a development as public high schools could
not in the very nature of things be entirely satisfactory.
In a state where previously nothing of the sort had
existed, the fiat of the law could not miraculously evolve
the necessary buildings, equipment, and trained teachers.
It wall not surprise us, therefore, to learn that Kentucky
to-day possesses, not a high school system, but the mere
skeleton of a high school system. Intelligent effort and
increased expenditure over a period of years will be re-

I20 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

quired if the skeleton is to be converted into a living
thing.

The county high school law did nothing more than
define high schools in terms of the length of the course
offered; it provided that a first class high school should
offer a four-year course of study; a second class high
school, a three-year course; and a third class high school,
a two-year course — all with a minimum year of eight
months. Thus classified, public high schools were
ranked as follows in 192 1 ;

320 first class,

24 second class,

86 third class,
2 unknown or unclassified.
Obviously this method of classification ignores all the
factors involved in making a good school except the
number of years of instruction offered. Even among the
schools grouped as first class, the quality of the instruc-
tion must vary greatly, depending, as it does, on the
number of teachers employed, their experience and pre-
paration, upon equipment, buildings, and other factors.
The Association of Kentucky Colleges undertakes to
classify high schools on the basis of their educational
facilities. On this basis the 320 first class high schools
decrease to 89; the second class increase to 131; whereas
212 are "unaccredited" — i. e., in the judgment of the
Kentuckians, which is not and should not be too exact-
ing, 212 Kentucky high schools are so inferior in equip-
ment and teaching staff that they caimot be definitely

]\Iiddle-Period Schoolhouses of Citv School Districts

HIGH SCHOOLS 121

classified. Thus, despite the rapid multiplication of
high schools in the last thirteen years, out of 120 counties
in the state, 3 have no public high school at all, and 56
are without a high school that the state colleges regard
as first class.

The fundamental defect arises from the lack of trained
teachers. Higher certificates of all kinds, whether
issued by the state board of examiners, the state univer-
sity, or the normal schools, have always been valid in
high schools. Many teachers are now teaching on these
old certificates, issued without the slightest regard to
proper qualifications for high school instruction. Others
are teaching on county certificates, and still others have
no certificate of any kind. The result is that only 23 per
cent, of the high school teachers in service are properly
prepared for their work.

The number of teachers employed is also frequently
inadequate. The Association of Kentucky Colleges
requires an accredited school of "A" grade to possess at
least 3 teachers — surely not an excessive staff. Of the
432 public high schools, 133 have only two teachers, and
loi have only one teacher.

Of course, the teachers are also overburdened. In 231
Kentucky high schools, teachers are required to teach
in excess of six periods daily; and this is probably true
in even more schools, since we have no information on the
subject in 59 schools. With so heavy a schedule, the
best prepared high school teachers can with great diffi-
culty do good work; and good work is impossible when

122 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

teachers are poorly prepared, as three-fourths of them
are.

High school teachers likewise work without adequate
equipment. Outside the large cities, the high school
usually occupies two or three rooms in an elementary
school building.^ There is rarely a study hall, seldom
a good Hbrary, and almost never adequate provisions
for science. The reports to the state inspector of high
schools show that a considerable sum has been spent in
the last decade for scientific apparatus, but change of
principal and teachers is so frequent that, owing to lack
of care, most of this apparatus has disappeared.

Nor are high school teachers properly supervised.
In the cities the time of the high school principal is
devoted almost exclusively to organization and adminis-
tration. Outside the cities high school principals do
five or six hours' teaching daily, leaving only an oc-
casional hour free for conference and supervision. The
untrained and overburdened teacher, therefore, works
practically without direction or advice.

Since 1910 there has been a state high school inspector
and supervisor. Until recently his duties were fourfold:
(i) He was professor of secondary education at the
state university, and during the winter months gave
instruction in high school organization, administration,
and methods of instruction; (2) he visited county high
schools to see whether or not they met the legal require-

^In a small system, a combination elementary and high school building
is desirable, and need not prevent proper provisions for the high school.

HIGH SCHOOLS 123

ments for such schools; (3) he acted as the agent of the
Association of Kentucky Colleges, preparing for them
annually a list of accredited schools, both public and
private; (4) he acted more recently as director of
vocational education. In 1920-192 1 his work was
divided, so that there is now one person serving as pro-
fessor of secondary education at the university, one
person as director of vocational education, and one
person in the office of the state department of education
devoting his entire time to* inspection and supervision
of high schools.

The state inspector has devoted himself conscienti-
ously to his duties — visiting high schools, issuing courses
of study, holding conferences, delivering public addresses,
etc. It should, however, be apparent that his many
duties leave him little time for supervision.

Even a high school inspector who gave all his attention
to supervision, could not under existing circumstances
meet the need. Calls for public addresses, settlement of
legal and technical questions, inspection of schools, both
public and private, seeking to be accredited by the
colleges, consume his time and energy. Either local
principals must have more time for supervision, or
additional state supervisors must be employed if high
school teachers are to get the help needed to enable them
to do good work.

Serious as are the foregoing limitations, none of them
is as disastrous as the poor preparation of the pupils.
On this subject, impressions obtained through visits are

124 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

sustained by the evidence procured through actual
examinations and tests. In order to ascertain (i)
whether high school pupils are qualified to do high
school work, and (2) how well they do in a given subject,
high school pupils were tested in reading and algebra.
The reading test was the same as that used in the ele-
mentary school; algebra tests involved addition, sub-
traction, equations, and the use of formulae.

The results from the reading tests in the high schools
correspond closely with those obtained in the elementary
schools. (See Table XIII, Appendix.) As city ele-
mentary schools do better reading work than rural ele-
mentary schools, so city high schools do better work than
rural high schools. First year city high school pupils
in reading are, on the average, more than a year ahead
of first year rural high school pupils. In the other classes
the difference amounts to about two years. But city
high school reading results in Kentucky are below the
achievements of good city high schools in other states.
The first year high school pupils make an average reading
score below what is normally expected of eighth grade
pupils. The fourth year class come within half a year of
being up to grade.

Rural high school pupils are also somewhat older than
city high school pupils. In the first and second years the
difference in average ages is about five months, in the
third year, eight months, and in the fourth year, six
months.

Variations in high school reading scores of individual

HIGH SCHOOLS 125

pupils are shown in Table XIV of the Appendix. Of all
the city high school pupils who took the reading test, 37
per cent, made scores which were up to or above the
standard for the respective classes. Compared with this,
only 22 per cent, of rural high school pupils came up to
standard. The first year class, both in city and rural high
schools, had the largest proportion of pupils with scores
below normal. In the rural high schools, 29 per cent, of the
first year pupils, 28 per cent, of the second year pupils,
7 per cent, of the third year pupils, and 11 per cent, of
the fourth year pupils made scores below the standard
which ought to be reached by sixth grade pupils and
which is reached by sixth grade pupils in good schools.
In the cities, 12 per cent, of the first year class, 5 per cent,
of the second, 3 per cent, of the third, and i per cent, of
the fourth fell as low.

The results in algebra were tabulated according to
the length of time pupils had studied the subject. (See
Table XV, Appendix.) In the city high schools, pupils
who had studied algebra from three to five months were
but little below standard; those who had pursued the
subject for longer periods did not do so well. In none of
the groups was the score of rural high schools as high
as those of city high schools. Rural pupils who had
studied algebra from three to five months fell consider-
ably below the standard for this group. Those who had
studied the subject from eleven to fourteen months did
little better than well-trained pupils of only from three
to five months.

126 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

In a word : A third of the freshmen in city high schools
have less than seventh grade reading ability; in rural high
schools a half have less than seventh grade, and a fourth
less than sixth grade, reading ability. In the cities the
difl&culty due to inferior preparation in reading is serious,
but not insuperable ; rural high schools, however, simply
cannot do good high school work with pupils so poorly
trained in reading. A good high school cannot be built
on the basis of a six months' elementary school, in-
efficiently conducted at that.

COURSES OF STUDY

Kentucky high schools usually offer a single course of
study — a classical, an English, or a scientific course —
following in each instance the outline furnished by the
state board of education. Latin is required only in the
classical course. The English course is probably the
most common, although the classical is a close com-
petitor. In 1920, 148 schools gave the English course;
142, the classical; 57, the scientific; 85 made no report.
Whatever the course, there is actually little Latin taught
and less science.

In a few larger cities there are four-year commercial
courses which prepare directly for clerical positions. A
few also give manual training for boys and home econ-
omics for girls; and three provide rather extensive in-
dustrial courses, including blacksmithing, foundry, press
drill work, etc.

Recently a number of rural high schools have been en-

HIGH SCHOOLS 127

couraged to offer agriculture and home economics. The
Smith-Hughes federal fund is available for this purpose.
Federal authorities pay approximately 50 per cent, of the
salaries of teachers of agriculture and related sciences,
and about one-eighth of the salaries of teachers of home
economics; the remainder is paid by local authorities.
Some $31,523 of federal funds was so expended in 1920-
192 1 for agriculture, and $3,283 for home economics.
Thirty (30) white and i colored high schools now comply
with the Smith-Hughes requirements in agriculture and
in related sciences; 17 white and 2 colored, with the
Smith-Hughes requirements in home economics.

It is too early to pass final judgment on this work, but
two things are becoming clear. First, it is expensive.
In one school the instructional cost of agriculture and
related sciences alone in 1920-192 1 was $170 per pupil
enrolled, and for these subjects the state average cost
per pupil enrolled was $63.45.^ Home economics is less
expensive, and yet the average for 1920-192 1 per pupil
enrolled was $17.66. In contrast, the state average in-
structional cost for all high school work per pupil en-
rolled was $69.

Second, Smith-Hughes work does not reach, except
in rare instances, either all the boys or all the girls of a

'In considering the cost of Smith-Hughes agriculture and related
sciences, it should be taken into account that the teacher. of these sub-
jects works eleven months a year and not the usual eight to ten months;
after school adjourns he supervises the boys' home projects and advises
the farmers of the neighborhood.

128 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

school. Under present federal regulations, only such
boys and girls are admitted to these classes as will give
half of their entire school time to agriculture and related
sciences or home economics. Many boys and girls refuse
to give so much time to these studies. The Smith-
Hughes courses therefore do not ordinarily lessen the
number of teachers required to carry the usual high school
branches ; a full program must be carried for pupils who
do not take agriculture or home economics. Hence,
the Smith-Hughes work is, as a rule, an additional ex-
pense over and above t.he usual high school cost.

As pointed out above, the rural schools urgently need
more science teaching, just as they need more and better
teaching in other directions. The teachers of agriculture
might readily teach science; the teachers of home
economics might teach art; and both agriculture and
home economics might be open to pupils who give less
than half their time to these subjects. Unless some such
larger use can be made of these teachers, it would seem
that the work in agriculture, if not also the work in home
economics, encouraged by Smith-Hughes aid, imposes an
unnecessarily heavy burden on the community, and will
retard general high school development.

LARGER HIGH SCHOOLS

Kentucky high schools are mostly small. Of the 432,
234 are one- and two-teacher schools. A single small
county has 9 high schools, only 2 of which are of reason-
able size. One cannot say offhand how many high

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^lodern City Schoolhouses of the Poorer T>T5e

HIGH SCHOOLS 129

schools a county should have, but it can be stated as a
principle that the small high school is as undesirable as
the small elementary school. Indeed, the high cost of
secondary education, and the greater relative efficiency
of the large over the small high school, both with respect
to the range of opportunities offered and the quality of
instruction, make the consoHdation of small high schools
as imperative as the consolidation of one-teacher ele-
mentary schools.

Small high schools have too often been established
to meet a local demand, without regard to the high
school needs of the county viewed as a whole. It is one
of the great advantages of the county unit that a compre-
hensive view can be taken of the entire situation. Every
high school estabhshed should be an essential part of a
well-conceived plan aiming to bring high school advan-
tages within reach of all the children of the county. It
may still be necessary, on account of transportation
difficulties, to establish small high schools with one- and
two-year courses, but the number of high schools in a
county must be kept to the minimum, if cost and efficiency
are to be taken into account.

The existence of so many small high schools, and the
attempt of so many to give a four-year course when they
have neither the requisite teaching force nor equipment,
make imperative the adoption of appropriate high school
standards. On the basis of acceptable standards, instead
of having 220 fairly good public high schools, Kentucky
has probably not more than 60 good high schools at

I30 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

this time. The state should know the truth, and seek
to increase the number of standard schools, rather than
rest content under the impression that the high school
situation is even fairly satisfactory. In the appHcation
of higher standards, private schools should not be ex-
empt. The state department of education should possess
the authority to visit, classify and inspect private
schools in order that the public may not be misled.

SPECIAL STATE AID

Three (3) counties have no high school; 56 counties
have nothing approaching a standard high school; 52
graded school districts have neither high schools of their
own nor make provision for the high school tuition
of their pupils elsewhere. Many other graded school
districts and even fourth class cities sacrifice their ele-
mentary schools in attempting to support high schools.
In short, the cost of good high schools is more than a
poor county or community can bear. For this reason
no state has been able to develop an efficient high school
system without special state aid. Such assistance is
especially needed in Kentucky owing to the great dif-
ferences in wealth and number of children to be educated.
Unless Kentucky sets apart a portion of the conurion
school fund to be used in giving special high school aid,
or the general assembly can make an appropriation from
the general treasury for this purpose, high school progress
will be extremely uneven and slow. Failure to give the
necessary special state aid: would be unfortunate. The

HIGH SCHOOLS 131

state must look to the high schools if the common
schools are to have better trained teachers; on the high
schools depend the elevation of the general intelUgence
of the people, and the development of the colleges and
universities, to which the state must look for leaders.

IX. SCHOOL FINANCES

WHAT does Kentucky pay for its schools?
Does it pay much for the Httle it gets or does
it get little because it pays little? And how
is the money obtained?

CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND CUREENT COST

School costs cover capital outlay for grounds, build-
ings, and equipment, and current expenses for mainte-
nance and operation. Kentucky had invested in school
plant in 1917-1918 $22,860,990, a state average per pupil
enrolled of $42.86; a city average of $109.63, and a
rural average of $30.08. The average for the United
States for the same date was $95.12; the city average,
$146.62; the rural average, $59.07.^ That is, approxi-
mately speaking, Kentucky as a state invests in school
property per child enrolled less than half of the amount
that the country at large invests; the cities invest per
child one-third less than do cities of the country at large ;
the counties invest per child about half the amount
that the country districts throughout the Union invest.
Unfortunately, comparative data for 1920-192 1 are not

^These comparative data are for 1917-1918 and are taken from Bulle-
tin No. 31 (1920 ) of the Bureau of Education.

132

SCHOOL FINANCES 133

available either for Kentucky or for the other states.
Kentucky stood, however, in 1918, fortieth among the
states in capital invested in school property. There
may have been a slight relative improvement in rank
since 1918. But even if this improvement is taken into
account, it is easy to see why Kentucky's school plant is
poor. Kentucky has probably gotten as much for what
it has spent as many another state, but, as pointed out in
Chapter V, approximately a half of all the money now
invested in schoolhouses has been wasted because of
poor building plans — an ob\dous consequence of having
an undermanned and poorly organized state department
of education.

Current school expenditures for 191 7-19 18 were
$8,308,640, a state average per pupil enrolled of $15.58,
a city average of $30.33, a rural average of $12.75, The
average current expenditure for the United States for
the same year was $30.91; city average, $40.60; rural
average, $24.13. Again, we lack comparable data for
1920-192 1 from Kentucky and from other states. Ken-
tucky's current school expenditures have doubtless in-
creased considerably within recent years, but, as with
school property, its ranking has probably not materially
changed from that of 19 18, when it stood fortieth in
current school expenditures. Kentucky's city school
expenditures, it will be noted, were in 1917-1918 only
about three-fourths of the country-wide city average,
and rural school current expenditures only about a half
of the country-wdde rural average. Good city and rural

134 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

schools cost as much in Kentucky as elsewhere. Indeed,
there are reasons to believe that they will cost more,
for Kentucky has no large body of well-trained teach-
ers.

The educational status of a state is not to be fixed
merely by the amount it spends on schools; the financial
sacrifice made must also be considered. This sacrifice
is expressed in the relation between school expenditures
and taxable wealth. While detailed information on this
point is neither complete nor satisfactory, the data
available suggest that Kentucky is to be ranked with the
states bearing a "medium to Kght school tax burden,"^
and therefore is not doing its plain duty.

STATE SCHOOL SUPPORT

Money for public schools comes from two main sources
— from the state^ and from local school units, the latter
comprising county, graded school, and city school dis-
tricts.

The state has a productive common school fund of 798
shares of the stock of the National Bank of Kentucky,
which yields about $8,000 a year. It also has a so-called
common school fund of $1,933,641.03. This is in the
form of two six per cent, bonds drawn by the common-
wealth in favor of the state board of education. The

iSee Educational Administration and Supervision, April, 1921.

^A relatively small sum is received annually from the federal govern-
ment for the encouragement of agriculture, home economics, and in-
dustrial education. This amounted in 1920-1921 to $34,805.95.

SCHOOL FINANCES 135

first bond is for $1,327,000, derived in part from the
surplus revenue distributed in 1837 to the states by the
federal government; the second bond is for $606,641.03,
derived from the return of direct taxes by the federal
government in 1892.

The constitution renders this $1,933,641.03 inviolable
and dedicates the income therefrom to the support of
common schools. As a matter of fact, no such fund
exists. The state spent the principal, thereby reUeving
past generations of legitimate taxes. Hence the schools
do not really get $1 16,000 annually over and above what l^
the people are now willing to pay for the support of the
schools. A state tax is levied for the sinking fund com-
mission, which pays over to the state board of education
the interest on this fictitious common school fund. For
all practical purposes the same tax might as well be
levied directly for the schools. The common school
fund, with the exception of the 798 shares of bank stock,
is therefore nothing but a name.

To provide for the schools and its other activities,
the state levies a tax of 40 cents upon each $100 value
of all property directed to be assessed for taxation. Eigh-
teen-fortieths "of the aggregate amount of tax realized
by all assessments under this forty cent rate" constitutes
the entire support of the common schools derived from
state taxes and the so-called common school fund.
The schools also receive their proportionate share of
fines, forfeitures, licenses, etc., and of the inheritance
tax. The total so derived during the fiscal year end-

136 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

ing June 30, 192 1, and allotted to the common schools
was $4,053,507.

Within recent years the state school tax rate has been
lowered repeatedly. Between 1904 and 1906, it was
26I cents; between 1906 and 1918, 26 cents; and since
1918, it has been 18 cents. Notwithstanding these re-
ductions in school tax rates, the amounts derived from
state sources for the common schools is slowly increasing.
For example:

1910-1911, $2,985,565

1915-1916, 3,373,926

1920-1921, 4,347,715

On the other hand, a smaller and smaller part of the
state's total income is going to the common schools. In
1910-1911, 41 per cent, went to them, in 1915-1916, 38
per cent., and in 1920-192 1, 29 per cent. The state's
income increased between 191 1 and 192 1, 104 per cent.,
whereas the state's support of the common schools in-
creased only 46 per cent. That a state should be doing
less and less, in proportion to its income, for common
schools, especially at a time when the cost of public
education is mounting by leaps and bounds, is ex-
tremely significant. Any such movement should be
scrutinized carefully lest the children suffer.

State common school funds have almost from the be-
ginning been used for two purposes only. From them are
first paid all expenses of the state department of educa-
tion. These were, for 1920-1921, $37,521. The re-
mainder is then apportioned to the counties for teachers'

City Schoolhouses of the Better Tj^dc

SCHOOL FINANCES 137

salaries.^ The apportionment to the counties has
always been made on the basis of school population,
that is, the number of children between specified ages.
These ages have changed from time to time, but now
include all children between six and eighteen years old.
The school population of the state in 192 1 was 646,569.
Dividing the total amount to be apportioned in any one
year by the number of school census children in the state
for that year gives the state per capita, which for 1920-
192 1 was $6.10. The amount of state funds going to a
county is then found by multiplying this per capita by
the number of school census children in the county.

This method of distributing state school funds was
first fixed by statute, but since 1891 has been fixed by
the state constitution. When adopted, it undoubtedly
seemed equitable. There was then neither state school
tax nor county school tax. State school funds, derived
entirely from the interest on the gift from the federal gov-
ernment, were practically the whole support of rural
schools. It was therefore felt that each county should
share in proportion to the children to be educated, and
likewise each district within the county, for nothing
seemed easier than to subdivide a county into districts
having a uniform number of school children.

The injustice and unwisdom of this mechanical method

Wo mention is made of the apportionment of state funds to graded
school and city school districts, for in distributing state funds the school
population of these districts is included in the school population of the
respective counties.

138 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

of distributing state school funds became evident first
in the districts. Ordinary geographical obstacles, such
as mountains, rivers, swamps, and differences in density
of population and lack of roads, make it impossible to
divide a county into districts having a uniform number
of children. For example, there were in Pulaski County
in 1843, 59 districts, in which the children of school age
ranged in number from 11 to 114, so that the largest
district received ten times more money from the state
than the smallest, although each district required a
teacher. In 1852, Fayette County had, exclusive of
Lexington, 27 districts, with the number of census pupils
ranging from 21 to 100, with a corresponding difference
in the amount of money received from the state for the
support of schools in the respective districts. Relying,
as practically all rural districts did up to 1908, entirely
on state funds for the payment of teachers' salaries, the
schools provided varied in quality from district to dis-
trict. To illustrate, the school term in the 59 districts
of Pulaski County in 1843 ranged from three months to
seven months, and in Fayette County in 1852 from three
to eleven months. There was a corresponding difference
in the salaries paid to teachers; the monthly salary in
Fayette in 1852 ranged from $13.70 to $63.00.

These inequalities were not overlooked, although
nothing was done to reduce them until 1893. At that
time, the state superintendent was required, in making
his apportionments to the several districts of a county,
first to apportion to each district, without regard to

SCHOOL FINANCES T39

school population, the per capita for 45 pupils, and to
prorate the remainder among the districts having more
than 45 children on the basis of their school population.
This method of distribution, as changed from time to
time, tended to diminish the grossest differences in,
length of term and teachers' salaries, but the differences'!
were not finally eliminated until 191 2, when the district'
and its school population were dropped as the basis
within the county for distributing both state and county
funds. Thereafter each district shared in the funds
available, both state and county, according to its needs;
the length of term of all schools within a county became
uniform, and all teachers in the same county were paid
on a common basis.

But the changes of 1912, so beneficial to the district,
did nothing to ehminate equally glaring inequahties
among the counties. These inequahties have become
especially apparent as the counties participate more
actively in the financial support of their respective
schools. The present method of distribution places all
counties on the same educational basis, so far as state
funds go, for each receives the same amount for each
school census child. But all differences in the financial ]
abihty of the counties to contribute locally to the sup-/
port of good schools are ignored. For example, Bourbon
County in 1920 had back of each child of school age
$7,615 of taxable property; Jefferson, $4,861;^ Carter,

'The amount in Jefferson is doubtless considerably higher, as in all
these compilations certain corporate property is excluded.

I40 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

$i,o66; and Magoffin, $545; with an average for the
state of $2,452. The welfare of the state requires that
the children of Magoffin get as good an elementary educa-
tion as the children of Carter or Jefferson; and the more
nearly this goal can be attained, the better for the entire
commonwealth. Yet for Magoffin to raise locally the
same amount of school money per child of school age as
Bourbon would require a tax rate thirteen times higher
than that of Bourbon; similarly, for Carter to raise the
same amount as Jefferson would require a tax rate almost
five times higher than that of Jefferson. Owing to these
striking differences in local ability to support schools,
counties that make the same local financial sacrifice do
not enjoy equally good schools. For example, in 1920-
192 1, Carter County levied a 50-cent school tax and
maintained its schools six months; it was, however, not
able to pay the legal minimum wage to its teachers, al-
though a majority of them hold the lowest grade of state
certificates. In contrast, Jefferson County on the same
tax rate maintained its schools eight or nine months and
was able not only to pay the legal minimum wage, but to
employ a relatively large proportion of well-trained
teachers.

A method of distributing state school funds that thus
ignores differences in financial resources, ignores differ-
ences in the grade and in the quahty of the schools
although there is equal wilHngness on the part of
the people to make sacrifices for them, and ignores the
state's responsibility to provide equal educational oppor-

SCHOOL FINANCES 141

tunities of a satisfactory standard for all the children of
the commonwealth, ought not to be longer tolerated.
Sound policy requires that these differences be taken into
account in distributing state school funds. Kentucky is,
however, tied by the constitution to this unwise and
antiquated method of distributing state school funds.

LOCAL SCHOOL SUPPORT

The second source of public school support is local
school taxes. Every county and city school district
and practically every graded school district now levies
such a tax. The total amount so raised in 1920-192 1
was probably about $7,500,000.

The state never supposed that the state fund would
alone be sufficient to support good schools. The first
school law provided for local school taxes, although such
levy was optional with the district. State funds might
be used to pay teachers, but, from the organization of the
system, local school units have been responsible for
school grounds, buildings, equipment and incidental
expenses. Graded school and city school districts have,
with minor exceptions, always supplemented state funds
by local taxes, but rural districts were slow to do so.
In fact, up to 1908, rural districts rarely levied a school
tax. Local school taxes were first required of graded
school and city school districts in 1888, but such tax
was not made mandatory upon the counties until 1908.
Even then a nominal levy met the requirements of
the law, and the maximum that might be levied could

7

142 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

not exceed 20 cents on each $100 value of assessed prop-
erty. In 1 91 8 the maximum was raised to 30 cents, and
in 1920 to 50 cents.

The mandatory local school tax legislation of 1920
stands as a landmark in the educational history of the
state and differs from all previous similar legislation.
It fixed a minimum local school tax — 25 cents on each
$100 value of assessed property — that all county boards
of education must levy. Kentucky has therefore really
had mandatory local school taxation only since 1920.

The late acceptance of mandatory local school taxation
is an important element in explaining the slow develop-
ment of pubhc education in Kentucky, and the present
low educational ranking of the state. It is, however, a
principle that needs to be appHed more and more if
Kentucky is to have the kind of pubhc schools its children
deserve. For the state should give special and additional
financial assistance only to those who first help them-
selves.^

iThere is one item of local school support that calls for special mention.
The counties themselves have a permanent school fund, although this is
held as a part of the permanent state school fund, This permanent
county school fund amounts to $381,986.08, and is in the form of an
irredeemable state debt on which the state guarantees 6 per cent, interest
payable semi-annually. The income therefrom is distributed directly
to the counties in proportion to their share of the principal. Their
respective shares range from $13.55 to $15,931.66, and their annual in-
comes therefrom vary accordingly. This permanent county school fund
grew out of state apportionments which the counties were unable to use
for one reason or another and turned back to the state to be held to the cred-
it and for the benefit of the respective counties. The law of 1890 quite

SCHOOL FINANCES 143

STATE VERSUS LOCAL SCHOOL SUPPORT

The introduction of the principle of mandatory local
school taxation has changed, especially within recent
years, the relation between the amount of state school
funds and the amount of local school funds available an-
nually. The per cent, derived from state and the per
cent, derived from local sources since 1900 have been as
follows:
In 1900, from state sources, 62 per cent.; from local

sources, 38 per cent.
In 1910, from state sources, 53 per cent.; from local

sources, 47 per cent.
In 1917-18, from state sources, 44 per cent.; from local

sources, 56 per cent.
In 192C-21, from state sources, 38 per cent.; from local

sources, 62 per cent.

The increase in school funds derived from local sources
is a wholesome development, but the same cannot be said
with confidence of the failure of state school funds to keep
pace with this local increase. What the proportion should
be between the two is admittedly difficult to determine.
Experience elsewhere throws little Hght on the question.
In most southern states a relatively large proportionof the
total support of the pubHc schools comes from state tax-
ation. In the North practice is not so uniform. In cer-

properly stopped the growth of this fund, and justice would dictate that,
if the constitution permitted, it should be covered into the permanent
state school fund.

144 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

tain states, for example, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, and Mas-
sachusetts, almost the entire burden of public school
support is thrown on the local school units; in others,
such as Maine and New Jersey, the state bears as much
as 40 per cent, of all current school costs.

As a matter of principle, the state must be regarded as
responsible for maintaining, throughout the common-
wealth, a system of pubHc schools of a satisfactory
standard. In a state where both population and
wealth are evenly distributed, and the wealth is every-
where ample to support good schools, there is Httle need
of a large state school fund. In a state where there are
striking differences in the distribution of population
and wealth, the necessity of equahzing educational op-
portunities calls for a large state school fund. As we
have pointed out, Kentucky is marked by extreme vari-
ations in both population and wealth. Therefore, if pub-
lic schools of a satisfactory standard are to be open to
all the children of the commonwealth, Kentucky must
have a relatively large state school fund.

For these reasons it is highly unfortunate that the
state's share of public school revenues has not kept pace
with the increased local school support. Not only
should the proportion the state contributes to schools
be greatly increased, but, as we shall point out later, the
amount that it contributes should also be greatly in-
creased. But this increased state support cannot and
should not relieve local school units of the duty of also
increasing their support. Indeed, further local support

SCHOOL FINANCES 145

must be both encouraged and required if the public
schools of Kentucky are to develop satisfactorily.

COLLECTION AND PAYMENT OF SCHOOL FUND

In general, state school taxes and local school taxes
are assessed and collected as other taxes. One point *
in this connection deserves attention. The assessed
valuation of railroads and corporations is fixed by the
state tax commission. To make up the state assessment
roll for railroads and corporations presents no unusual
difficulties, but it is difficult to make it up for the
county, graded district, and city school tax. The present
process is so complicated and responsibihty is so divided
that there is danger that much railroad and corporation
property may escape local taxation. The responsibility
for fixing the value of railroad and corporation property
to be taxed in county school district, graded school dis-
trict, and city school district should be placed squarely
on the state tax commission and on the respective local
tax commissioners, and railroad and corporation taxes
should be collected as other taxes are collected. The
county superintendent would thus be relieved of duties
which for obvious reasons hp is ill-suited to perform.

Finally, the schools are run to a large extent on credit.
County school terms are often entirely over, and graded
and city school terms half over, before funds in any con-
siderable amount, either state or local, are available,
since state and local taxes are for the most part not re-
turned before December. The state auditor is re-

146 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

quired to issue interest-paying warrants when money is
not available for the September, October, November,
December, and February state apportionments. Even
at the end of the school year outstanding unpaid school
warrants frequently exceed $500,000. School boards
have recently had difficulty and at times have found it
impossible to discount these state school warrants.
Lacking adequate local funds, and unable or unwilling
to borrow on state school warrants, school boards leave
their current bills unpaid, and teachers are frequently
without their salaries for months at a time, to the dis-
credit of the board and the humiliation and inconveni-
ence of the teachers.

Repeated efforts have been made to correct this unfor-
tunate condition, but further action is needed. County
boards of education should be directed to borrow money
against current revenues due, for the payment of teach-
ers' salaries. The state treasurer should also be au-
thorized to borrow money against state school warrants
and turn the borrowed funds over to local school officials,
the interest being charged against the common school
fund. The real corrective would, of course, be to set
back to June 30th the final date for collecting taxes for
the ensuing school year. This would guarantee funds
in hand before the new school year opened, save thou-
sands of dollars of interest, and place boards of education
on a sound business basis.

PART II

NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS

CHAPTERS X-XIII

X. BETTER STATE ORGANIZATION AND AD-
MINISTRATION

FROM the foregoing discussion it must be appar-
ent that the improvement of the schools of
Kentucky requires better organization and ad-
ministration, better trained teachers, larger schools, a
longer school term, and more liberal financial support.

NEW STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

The vote of the people against Constitutional Amend-
ment No. I makes impossible at present a complete
reorganization of the state department of education.
Nevertheless, the present ex-officio state board of educa-
tion should be abolished, and, so far as possible, a
properly constituted board put in its place. To the
new board should be given the powers now exercised by
the present state board of education, for example, the
enforcing of the school laws and prescribing rules and
regulations for the management of the schools. The
power of enforcement should, however, be direct. From
time out of mind the state board of education and the
state superintendent have had the right of complaint
to the county court, the county attorney, and to the
commonwealth attorney, but it has been next to im-

149

I50 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

possible to get these ojficials to act. Punishment for
criminal offenses must, of course, be left to the proper
courts, but the state board of education, through its
executive officer, should be authorized to deal directly
with school officers who fail to perform their duties or
violate the school laws; that is, it should have power to
remove any common school officer, elected or appointed,
and revoke certificates of all kinds, for cause, after due
notice of the charges and after opportunity for public
hearing.

Boards possessing powers that properly belong to a
state board of education, such as the state board of
examiners, the vocational education board, and the state
textbook commission, should be abolished, their powers
and duties being transferred to the newly constituted
state board. The location of these varied powers and
duties in a single board will centraKze responsibility,
guarantee unity of administration, and eliminate dupH-
cation and waste.

In the establishment of a properly constituted board, a
number of considerations must be kept in mind. Too
frequent change in membership endangers the contin-
uance of well-devised plans and needlessly exposes the
schools to the influences of poHtical and other upheavals.
Again, a board that is too large becomes unwieldy and
gets in its own way; a board that is too small ceases to be
representative. The makeup of the board is also im-
portant. When a state board of education has the
power to select the state superintendent, he. should

BETTER STATE ORGANIZATION 151

not be included in its membership. But the superin-
tendent of public instruction in Kentucky is a consti-
tutional officer and should for this reason be included.
He should, however, be the only ex-officio member, for the
arguments given above against state officials elected to
specific state offices being members of the state board of
education are unanswerable.

Whether professional educators should be included de-
pends on the \iew held of the purpose and function of
such a board. If the board is regarded as an agency
meant to formulate policies and plans, and to participate
actively in their execution and in the administration of
the schools, professional educators should obviously
be included. But in our judgment, such is not the proper
function of a state board of education. To our mind
the state board should not primarily originate educa-
tional poHcies, nor should the board itself execute them ;
least of all should it concern itself with the details of
management. The board should represent the people
in an advisory and legislative capacity and should depend
for professional guidance and for the execution of its
policies on its executive officer, the state superintendent.
On this view, amply vindicated by the experience of
other states, the board should be composed of broad-
minded and highminded laymen. What is wanted and
needed is the lay point \dew, to review the policies and
plans submitted for approval by its executive officer and
to judge of his execution of them. If expert advice
other than that offered by the state superintendent is

152 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

desired, this can be easily procured from the educators
of the state, who always stand ready to serve the cause
of pubKc education. Moreover, when a state board of
education possesses the powers needed to direct and su-
pervise a public school system, there are few, if any,
educators in the state who are not subject, directly or
indirectly, to its authority; and this is another reason for
excluding schoolmen from membership.

Experience in other states suggests that a board of
nine members, including the state superintendent as is
necessary under present limitations, composed of both
men and women, would probably prove most satisfactory
for Kentucky. The constitution limits the terms of
such members to four years. With a board of eight lay
members, serving for four years, it would be well to
arrange their terms at the outset so that there wouljd
be two appointments in the first year thereafter, two in
the second, two in the third, and two in the fourth year.
Members should, of course, be eligible for reappointment.

Experience also favors strongly appointment by the
governor as the best method of obtaining a non-poKtical
board animated by a fine spirit of pubHc service. In 27
states out of the 33 having other than strictly ex-officio
boards, the governor appoints the members. In Michi-
gan, only, are the members elected by the people. In
New York and Rhode Island the legislature chooses.
In Virginia the senate and state board of education ap-
point. In Wyoming the state superintendent appoints,
with the approval of the governor. In Wisconsin the

Playground and Athletic Field

BETTER STATE ORGANIZATION 153

governor appoints five and educational boards and in-
stitutions appoint three.

In an increasing number of states, both city school
boards and county school boards are elected by the
people. A method sound in principle and successful in
small compact units, hke a city or county, is not neces-
sarily appUcable to a large area Hke a state. The fatal
weakness in the election of state board members is this:
The type of men and women most Hkely to be valuable
can rarely be induced to go through the processes in-
volved in popular election. Moreover, the choice of
state board members at a general election is almost cer-
tain to plunge the board deeply into party poHtics. The
same is true if the appointment is turned over to the state
legislature, unless the term is very long, as in New .York,
where it is twelve years.

ADEQUATE PROFESSIONAL STAFF

The creation of a state board of education, composed
of the state superintendent and eight lay members,
invested with adequate and appropriate powers, will
improve the pubKc school system, but satisfactory
results will not be obtained unless the state superintend-
ent possesses an appropriate clerical, stenographic, and
professional staff to assist him in enforcing the school
laws, in executing the policies of the state board of edu-
cation, and bringing to interested citizens, local school
officers, principals, and teachers the assistance that is
constantly being asked for.

154 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

To do well the work that lies immediately before it,
the state department of education should be organized
somewhat as follows :

1. Ofi&ce of state superintendent, having, in addition
to the superintendent and his personal secretary, an
assistant superintendent in charge of the entire ofiice and
authorized to act in the absence of the superintendent.

2. Division of school records, school reports, and
publications, in charge of a director.

3. Division of business methods and school accounts,
in charge of a director.

4. Division of schoolhouse plans, in charge of a
director (a school architect), one assistant, and two
draftsmen.

5. Division of teachers' certificates, in charge of a
director, two assistants, and temporary question makers
and readers of examination papers.

6. Division of teacher training, in charge of a di-
rector.

7. Division of supervision, with at least six super-
visors, in charge of:

a. White elementary schools (3)

b. Colored elementary schools (i)

c. High schools (2)

8. Division of agricultural and industrial education,
in charge of a director and two assistants.

9. Division of health and physical education, in
charge of a director.

The superintendent and the head of each division

BETTER STATE ORGANIZATION 155

must, of course, be provided with the necessary stenog-
raphers and clerks.

The entire department, including salaries, traveling
expenses, postage, printing, etc., would cost approxi-
mately $165,000 annually, exclusive of the fees collected
from teachers taking examinations and receiving certifi-
cates. This exceeds the present state total expendi-
tures, exclusive of $35,765 from the federal government
and the General Education Board, by $100,000. But
$165,000 is a small general overhead expense — only 4
per cent, of the state school funds, to say nothing of
local funds. Nothing can be more unwise than a nig-
gardly attitude toward expenditures incurred for super-
visory work. Education in Kentucky cannot advance
until larger sums are expended for general overhead ; but
care must be taken that the agents selected have the
proper training, personaHty, ideals, and authority.

SUMMARY

If Kentucky should obtain a non-partisan board of
education, composed of men and women who are pro-
foundly interested in popular education and keenly aware
of existing defects ; if the state superintendent were aided
by an adequate force of active, well-trained assistants,
working uninterruptedly to enlighten the people and to
assist local officials — if these simple steps should be now
taken, the educational millennium w^ould not at once
dawn, but every year would see the state creep a notch
higher in the scale of relative educational efficiency.

XI. BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION AND
ADMINISTRATION

COUNTY ORGANIZATION

THE legislation of 1920 is so sound that no con-
siderable change need be made in county school
organization. Among the minor changes called
for is the repeal of that part of the county school bond
law of 1Q12 which creates a separate school building com-
mission. In the interest of unified responsibihty and
coherent poHcy the powers and duties of this commission
should be transferred to the county board of education.

The law of 1920 wisely made the superintendent the
executive officer and secretary of the county board of
education, with special authority over the teaching body,
including their appointment and assignment. The law
erred, however, in making the superintendent also the
treasurer. One and the same person should not be both
the custodian of pubUc funds and the active agent in their
disbursement. The county treasurer should be the trea-
surer of the county board. He should, of course, be
required to keep his school accounts in such form and to
make such reports as may be required by the county and
the state board of education.
Apart from modifications needed to unify the several

is6

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION 157

laws passed at different times, the above suggested
changes will give Kentucky an excellent county school
law. There are but two important exceptions to this:
Sooner or later all graded school districts should be
returned to the county system, and the county school
tax should be levied Uke other county taxes on all the
property of the county. But good schools cannot be
made by mere laws. The counties must in the first
place obtain better trained superintendents, to secure
whom higher salaries must be paid. Many of the new
county boards are indeed already paying in excess of the
present minimum, $1,200 per year, but in order to attract
reasonably well-trained superintendents to all counties,
the minimum should be increased to not less than $2,400,
provided that the county superintendent meets the
highest standard of qualification.

The moment the salary is raised the county is in posi-
tion to demand talent and training of a high order.
Hence, no superintendent should hereafter be employed
who has not had five years of experience as teacher,
supervisor, or administrator, who has not completed
the equivalent of a standard college course, and who has
not had in addition, when due credit is given for ex-
perience and outside reading, at least one year of special
study in county administration and supervision. Few
county superintendents now in service meet these very
reasonable requirements. For the present, therefore,
an elastic arrangement should be made, permitting the
temporary employment of less highly trained officers;

158 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

but these officers should not receive the larger compen-
sation meant as an inducement and remuneration to
more highly trained superintendents.

Conditions need also to be made more favorable to
effective work. More suitable and better equipped
offices must be provided, and the county superintendent
should have clerical and professional aid. In each office
there should be not less than one clerical and stenographic
assistant. There should also be well-trained supervisors,
at least one in each county, and sooner or later an addi-
tional one for approximately every fifty teachers in
excess of seventy-five. But until the state obtains better
trained superintendents, it would be a waste of money
to bring back rural supervision. In any event, nothing
is to be gained through the employment of half-trained
persons for supervisory work. Standard qualifications
should be prescribed; calling for a minimum salary of
at least $i,8oo, and no supervisor should be employed
who does not possess standard quahfications. The re-
introduction of rural supervision in Kentucky will be
slow, if for no other reason than that quahfied super-
visors must first be trained.

Most of the counties are already provided with at-
tendance officers. The few that are without them should
take immediate action to secure them. These officers,
supported by a properly drawn compulsory attendance
law, will improve rural school attendance. But county
children will not attend school regularly until pubHc
sentiment more fully appreciates and more earnestly

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION 159

supports public education. The introduction of school
physicians and nurses, whether through the agency of
the county board of education or county board of health,
would undoubtedly operate to the same end. Measles,
mumps, and whooping cough now close the rural schools
for weeks and months at a time — a thing that does not
happen where school doctors and school nurses are
provided.

Finally, county boards of education must furnish
superintendents, supervisors, and attendance officers,
school doctors and school nurses, with transportation at
the expense of the county, and pay all expenses incurred
in the performance of professional duties. So long as
school officials are required directly or indirectly to pay
the whole or a part of such expense, regular and efficient
service cannot be expected.

Efficient administration, efficient supervision, and
efficient health service naturally suggest a lengthened
school term. A good elementary education cannot be
given in a school year of six months. Lengthening the
school term is also the first step toward getting well-
trained teachers, for well-trained teachers will not take
charge of rural schools unless they are given a full year's
work, and with it, of course, a full year's pay. Rural
school salaries indeed should be higher than the salaries
of city teachers. Otherwise, well-trained teachers will
not endure the isolation, the inconvenience, and the hard-
ships of rural hfe. In a word, the improvement of rural
education involves not only more efficient administration,

i6o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

but a school term of nine or ten months, and a salary
schedule which will make rural teaching a livelihood and
a profession. Inasmuch as 74 per cent, of the people of
Kentucky Hve in the country, it is obvious that the state
will continue to be backward until the above-mentioned
steps are taken in behalf of rural education.

Educational progress in certain sections will long be
handicapped by a large number of one-teacher schools —
unavoidable owing to the lack of good roads and the
mountainous character of the country. Elsewhere one-
teacher schools can be readily eliminated in favor of
union or consoKdated schools. In consolidated schools
pupils can be better classified and graded; teaching can
be more effectively distributed and supervised. At-
tendance is more regular because they offer larger
educational opportunities furnished by playgrounds,
gymnasium, laboratories, courses in home-making and
farming, demonstration fields, assembly hall, etc. The
consolidated school also quickly becomes a community
center, adding interest and variety to adult as well as
to child Hfe.

Few counties are without consolidated schools, and in
one or two, most one-teacher schools have already dis-
appeared. However, in too many cases consolidations
have been effected without a comprehensive study of the
entire county situation. It happens, therefore, that
consolidated schools are sometimes unfavorably located
and that certain one-room schools are left stranded in the
open country. As consolidation aims to organize county

Negro Rural Schoolhouses

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION i6i

school resources economically and efifectively, it is obvi-
ous that it must not proceed on a mere neighborhood
basis.

In most instances the responsibility for the new con-
soHdated building has been thrown in whole or in part on
the subdistricts consolidated, generally the richest and
the less densely populated. For example, the first con-
sohdated district in a certain county contained approxi-
mately one-ninth of all the wealth, but only about one-
seventeenth of all the children. Experience in other
states has proved that rich districts, when permitted or
compelled to pay by local tax for their consoHdated
school buildings, sternly resist a county tax levied to
provide consolidated buildings for the remaining less
well-to-do districts. "We paid for our consolidated
building," they say, "let the other districts pay for
theirs." Inasmuch as the poor districts are unable to
do this alone, thoroughgoing consoKdation is halted.

Consolidated districts may well be permitted to levy an
additional local tax to be used for transportation, a
longer school term, better trained teachers, etc., but the
need of such local tax will decrease as the general level
of the county schools is raised. To illustrate: If a
county provides a school term of only seven months for
all districts, a consoHdated district that wants a nine
months' term must provide two additional months by
local taxation; if later the county provides for an eight
months' term in all schools, the consolidated districts
need to provide only one additional month in order to

i62 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

have a nine months' school. Hence the local district
tax falls as the general county tax rises.

If serious obstacles to complete consolidation are to be
avoided, all consoHdated schoolhouses, Kke ordinary
schoolhouses now, should be erected and paid for by the
county board of education, and the funds therefor raised
either by a county bond issue or by current county school
tax levies.

To provide for the needed improvements in adminis-
tration and supervision, for a standard school term of
nine or ten months, for well-trained teachers in all
schools, and to put consolidation on a proper basis will
call for increased county school expenditures. All
these improvements cannot and should not be under-
taken at once; but a program should be deliberately
adopted and a beginning should be made immediately.
The counties may confidently look to the state for still
more hberal assistance, but the chief burden for improv-
ed rural schools must be borne by the counties them-
selves. Therefore, the present minimum compulsory
county school tax of 25 cents should be raised to not
less than 35 cents for teachers alone, and the maximum
that may be levied (now 50 cents) should be raised to
a dollar. Good rural schools cost more than good town
and city schools, and country dwellers must be willing
to pay at least as high taxes as city folk.

A comprehensive plan, such as is here proposed, re-
quiring many years for complete realization, is not Hkely
to be adopted, and is still less likely to be pursued, unless

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION 163

the state department, freed from political control and
respected by all persons, regardless of politics, is in posi-
tion to frame and to follow up such far-reaching edu-
cational plans.

SINGLE CODE AND STANDARDS FOR CITY SCHOOLS

The organization and administration of city schools
already follow closely the best practice of the country.
The adoption of a single code for all cities would, how-
ever, simplify school laws, simpHfy administration, and
give opportunity to make some needed changes. But
should there be opposition to a single code, the
city codes should be amended as there is need. For
example, boards of education in first class cities should
be made independent financially of city councils, and
in second class cities the school tax which the
board of education may levy or cause to be levied should
be raised to probably not less than $1 for all purposes
on each $100 of assessed value of property.

A certain amount of general legislation affecting all
cities is in any event necessary. For example, provision
should be made for the state certification of city superin-
tendents, city supervisors, and all city teachers — cities
retaining the right to require higher quaHfications than
those imposed by the state ; and particularly for setting up
standards which all city schools must meet if they are to
continue to operate independently of the county system.
Cities faihng to meet these standards ought to be re-
turned to the county system, for the same reasons as

i64 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

have been given above for the return of graded school
districts.

The standards to be met by all cities operating indepen-
dently of the county should be approximately as follows :

1. Each city should possess taxable property of not
less than $ i , 2 50 ,000 .

2. Each city school district should provide ample
school grounds, including playgrounds, athletic fields,
and sanitary and hygienic schoolhouses, constructed
according to plans approved by and in accordance with
the rules and regulations of the state board of education.

3. Each city school district should maintain satis-
factory elementary schools and at least one first class
high school, with a school term of not less than 180
school days or 9 months.

4. Each city school district should in the future
employ a superintendent who has had not less than five
years' experience as teacher, supervisor, or adminis-
trator, who has completed the equivalent of a standard
college course, and who has had in addition, when due
credit is given for experience and outside reading, not
less than one year of special study in city administration
and supervision. For the smaller cities it will doubtless
be necessary for a time to permit lower qualifications,
but certainly these higher quahfications should at once
be made effective for first, second, and third class cities.

5. Each city school district should henceforth em-
ploy only such new elementary teachers as have com-
pleted the equivalent of a four-year high school course,

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION 165

and, in addition, not less than a two-year normal school
course.

6. Each city school district should henceforth em-
ploy only such new high school teachers as have com-
pleted the equivalent of a standard four-year college
course, including professional work in high school in-
struction.

7. Each city school district should henceforth employ
at least one whole- or part-time attendance officer.

While these standards are not high, they mark a
distinct and feasible advance beyond present conditions.

The foregoing recommendations, if carried into effect,
would leave Httle to be desired so far as the legal status of
city school districts is concerned; but they leave un-
touched the fundamental question: Shall city school
districts be exempt from the county school tax, or shall
they pay the county school tax, .receiving in return
from it only their equitable proportion? We do not
press the point now because there are so many other
imperative inprovements claiming immediate attention,
and it would be unfortunate to compHcate the situation
further by forcing this issue.

RETURN OF GRADED SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO COUNTY

Probably the most far-reaching recommendation af-
fecting local school organization and administration is
the return, so far as this is possible and advisable, of
graded common school districts to the county. The
conditions calling for this recommendation were reviewed

i66 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

above, and the main reasons only need to be restated
here.

The improvement of the rural schools is fundamental
to the welfare of the state. The existence of graded
school districts in large numbers prevents the develop-
ment of a sound county system, for the more progressive
and prosperous communities are, through the organiza-
tion of graded school districts, constantly drawn off,
leaving to the county system only the less progressive or
less wealthy sections.

The return of the graded school districts to the county
will not only benefit the county, but will also be to the
advantage of the districts themselves. Graded school
districts acting alone can rarely, at a reasonable rate of
taxation, provide for their children up-to-date school
plants, including adequate playgrounds, athletic fields,
gymnasiums, laboratories, and assembly halls; good
elementary schools and high schools with extended
programs, including physical education, science, courses
in home-making, farming, etc.; the proper administra-
tion and supervision; and attendance officers, school
doctors, and school nurses. An up-to-date plant and the
teachers to carry a modern school program can, as a rule,
care for more children than a single graded school district
contains; a well-trained county superintendent with a
strong professional staff can administer and supervise
the schools of the county and of the graded school dis-
tricts as well; the same attendance officers, school doctors,
and school nurses will also serve for all. Furthermore,

BETTER LOCAL ORGANIZATION 167

the return of graded school districts to the county pre-
pares the way for a rational consoHdation of many
schools, since these graded school districts are as a rule
natural consoHdation centers. Thus by combining re-
sources, both the county and the graded school districts
can enjoy educational advantages which neither can
provide acting alone.

On the other hand, long-standing injustices to the
county will be wiped out — such as, for example, gerry-
mandering graded district boundaries to include every
possible bit of corporate property in order to secure for
the graded district the sole benefits of concentrated
wealth, and throwing upon the county the responsibility
of educating the colored children of villages and towns.

Other advantages will follow the creation of a genuine,
inclusive county unit. It will simplify state supervision,
reduce the amount of personal interest in the manage-
ment of the schools, do away with much petty graft,
prevent irregularities in the handhng of public funds,
and facilitate the enforcement of school laws, now openly
violated in certain sections by graded school districts.

When graded school districts so far as possible and
ad\dsable are returned to the county, all property be-
longing to them will pass to the respective county boards
of education, and the county boards, after proper audit,
will assume all outstanding debts and become respons-
ible for the financial support and general management
of the schools. This, however, does not preclude sections
from doing more for their own schools than county

i68 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

boards may be able to do for all. They may well be
permitted, rnider proper restrictions, to levy additional
taxes, beyond the state and county tax, and to use the
funds in ways mutually agreed upon between the local
trustees and the county board of education for the sole
benefit of their respective schools.

A change so far reaching in its effects cannot and
should not be made too hurriedly. At present we
merely recommend that no new graded school districts
be organized or enlarged, that all graded school districts
be required to levy a graded school district tax which
shall be not less than the minimum school tax required of
all counties, and that graded school districts be returned
to the county only when this would mean a better
school.

XII. BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS

BETTER leadership is Kentucky's first educational
need. But efficient superintendents, supervisors,
and principals must have better trained teachers
to work with. Obviously, do what it will, Kentucky
will never have satisfactory schools until its teachers are
better trained. The steps to be taken to secure better
trained teachers are clear. A sound certification system
must be established, the salaries paid must be adequate,
and larger teacher training facilities must be obtained.

CERTIFICATION SYSTEM AND SALARY SCHEDULE

Different kinds of school work call for different kinds
of preparation. Elementary school teaching calls for one
kind of training, high school teaching for another kind.
A sound certification system will, therefore, provide as
many kinds of certificates as there are kinds of school
work calKng for specific and prolonged preparation. Each
given kind of certificate will be valid only in its own field.
For example, elementary certificates should be valid
only in elementary schools, high school certificates only
in high schools. The several kinds of certificates to be
provided would include city superintendents' certificates,
county superintendents' certificates, supervisors' certi-

169

lyo PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

ficates, high school principals' certificates, rural high and
elementary school principals' certificates, elementary-
school principals' certificates, high school teachers'
certificates (including specialized high school certificates,
such as those for home economics, and agriculture), and
elementary school teachers' certificates (including pri-
mary elementary, intermediate elementary, and gram-
mar grade elementary).

Theoretically, there should be only one grade of certi-
ficate for each kind issued, that is, one grade of city super-
intendent's certificate, one grade of high school teacher's
certificate, one grade of elementary school teacher's certi-
ficate, etc. This single certificate should be a first grade,
or standard certificate of its kind, and should be issued
only on the basis of the preparation which experience has
shown to be necessary to the successful performance of
the particular kind of school work for which the particular
certificate is issued. For example, it is generally accepted
that a high school teacher should be a college graduate
and have had as a part of his college course professional
work especially related to high school training. Similarly
it is generally accepted that an elementary teacher must
at least have completed a standard high school course
and have had in addition not less than a two-year course
especially related to elementary school teaching. A
certification system pitched on this level would bar all
persons from the schools who have not had a minimum
standard training for the specific kind of school work
which they desire to undertake. Ideally, this is what

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 171

should be done; it would ensure a body of professionally
trained teachers. But this high and single standard
for each kind of certificate is not now practicable for
Kentucky.

As previously pointed out, only 23 per cent, of all
high school teachers in service could meet the generally
accepted standard for high school teachers' certificates,
and only 10 per cent, of all elementary teachers could
meet the generally accepted standard for elementary
school teachers' certificates. The schools would be closed
if any such standard were proclaimed and enforced;
clearly, the state, while aiming at this goal, must be con-
tent to approach it gradually.

That so large a percentage of teachers in service do not
now meet acceptable standards of preparation does not
lessen the necessity of providing even now some sort of
standard certificate for each kind issued; for example, a
standard or first grade city superintendent's certificate,
a standard or first grade county superintendent's certifi-
cate, a standard or first grade high school teacher's cer-
tificate, a standard or first grade elementary school
teacher's certificate. If only a few teachers in service
can meet these standard requirements, there ought to be
a certificate which recognizes and rewards their superior
preparation. Moreover, the provision of a certificate of
standard grade for each kind of certificate issued sets
before the teaching body an ideal of what constitutes
acceptable preparation for given kinds of school work.

Making the highest grade certificate of each kind a

172 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

standard certificate does not prevent the issuance of as
many lower grade certificates of the same kind as are for
the time being required in order to procure teachers for
the schools. For example, since half the high school
teachers in service have not had the equivalent of two
years of standard college work, it will probably be neces-
sary for the present to issue at least three different grades
of high school teachers' certificates: a first grade, calhng
for college graduation, including special professional pre-
paration; a second grade, calhng for at least three years of
standard college work, including special professional
preparation; and a third grade, calling for not less than
two years of standard college work, including special
professional preparation. Similarly in the elementary
field. Since 23 per cent, of all elementary teachers in
service have themselves never gone beyond the elemen-
tary school, it will probably be necessary for a time to
issue.seVen different grades of elementary school teachers'
certificates. The requirements for these different ele-
mentary school teachers' certificates will range from
those of a first grade — completion of a standard high
school course and two years in a standard normal school
— to those of a seventh grade certificate, which probably
cannot call for more than completion of the eighth grade,
with an additional six weeks of professional training.

Similar concessions must be made for the present in
other kinds of certificates. To meet existing conditions,
it will probably be necessary to issue three grades of city
superintendents' certificates, and the same number of

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 173

county superintendents' certificates, high school j)rinci-
pals' certificates, and elementary school principals' cer-
tificates. But no matter how many grades of certificates
of each kind are issued, each lower grade should be ranked
with reference to the standard certificate of the given kind.
In a sound certification scheme, all first grade or stan-
dard certificates are issued on credentials, that is, on the
record of school work completed. While all first grade
or standard certificates are good only for limited terms,
the conditions of renewal are such as to make them prac-
tically life certificates. Lower grade or non-standard
certificates are also issued, so far as practicable, on cre-
dentials, but they may also be obtained on examination,
provided the appKcant has had the required amount of
school training w^hen due credit is given for experience.
In all cases these non-standard certificates when first
issued are good only for short terms, and are renewable
only on evidence of additional training in a school of
recognized standard. These hmitations achieve two
purposes: First, young and poorly trained teachers are
required to make further preparation at the beginning of
their teaching careers when additional training counts
most, and they are required to attend during the regular
term or during the summer term standard teacher-train-
ing schools, in order to improve their technical training.
Second, these limitations relieve even poorly prepared
teachers of the grind of taking examination after examina-
tion. A teacher is never examined but once. When a
certificate is once issued on examination, however low

174 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

the grade, it is thereafter renewed only on evidence of the
completion of additional school work. The repeated
renewal of a given grade of certificate on these terms in-
evitably leads to the next higher certificate of the same
kind, which, in turn, if repeatedly renewed leads to a still
higher certificate, and so on. Thus, instead of threshing
over the same old straw in examination after examination,
teachers are stimulated to prepare themselves more and
more thoroughly, and on so doing they earn a higher wage.

When, so far as possible, all certificates are both issued
and renewed on credentials, the certification of teachers is
reduced primarily to grading or ranking teacher-training
schools, and to auditing credentials. For all teacher-
training institutions within the state, both public and
private, must be ranked and their work brought
up to an acceptable standard, if credentials issued by
them are to be accepted. When such •credentials
are presented they must be audited to determine the
amount and character of the credit to be allowed and
the kind and grade of certificate to be granted thereon.

It also becomes incumbent on the certificating author-
ities to prescribe the requirements for each kind and
grade of certificate. Such prescriptions should not be so
definite or so rigid as to cramp the schools engaged in the
preparation of teachers, but they should be definite
enough to give point to all teacher-training work and to
serve as a guide to teachers preparing for given certifi-
cates.

Certification having been placed on the proposed

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 175

basis, the authority to issue certificates should be central-
ized. Otherwise there is confusion in standards and re-
quirements, confusion among teacher-training schools
about the lines of teacher-training to attempt, and con-
fusion among teachers as to what they should do in order
to secure a certificate of a given kind and grade. Ken-
tucky has already realized the need of centralization, for
the number of certificating authorities has recently been
reduced by abolishing the 120 county boards of examiners.
But the present law stops short of the desired end, since
the certification of all city teachers, as well as the certifi-
cating powers now exercised by both state and private
institutions, should be transferred to the state. There
remains a further step to complete the readjustment.
The state board of examiners should be abolished, and
the certification of all teachers should be vested in the
state board of education. The state board of education
should also be empowered, subject to the law, to fix
standards, determine the kinds and grades of certificates
to be issued, and to prescribe rules and regulations con-
trolling their issuance. In the office of the state superin-
tendent there should be established a division of teachers'
certificates, and over this there should be a director, pro-
vided with an adequate number of clerks and examination
readers. These measures are not new; they have been
adopted with excellent results by other states, notably
by Maryland and North Carolina.

However sound and efiiciently administered a certifica-
tion system may be, it will do Httle to stimulate teachers

176 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

to prepare themselves thoroughly unless it is linked up
with an adequate and appropriate state minimum salary
schedule. The highest wage, obviously, must go to the
best trained. Moreover, the salaries of all teachers
holding standard or first grade certificates, and in a few
instances the salaries of those holding second and third
grade certificates, should be on an annual and not on a
monthly basis. A given monthly wage may in itself be
attractive, but in a state where the school term is so
irregular, the total amount received on the basis of a
monthly wage may fall far short of making an attractive
annual salary. While boards of education employing
teachers holding standard certificates should not be per-
mitted to pay them less, they should be free to pay such
teachers more than the state minimum. This permits
well-prepared and successful teachers to profit by their
efforts and worth.

On the other hand, the wages of all teachers holding
lower than standard certificates, with a few exceptions,
should for the time being be stated in terms of a monthly
wage. School authorities should be forbidden to pay
such teachers a higher monthly wage than that specified
in the state schedule. If this is not done, the way is open
to all kinds of favoritism, and the whole effort to stimu-
late preparation by giving the best wage to the best
trained breaks down. No teacher, of course, is limited
forever to the specified minimum wage, but the higher
salary should depend on superior training recognized
by the higher grade of certificate.

^B^^^^H^Sv ^^^■IH ^B ^^^B

^ISSi 1 H ■« a^B

^^^^^!^^

Negro City Schoolhouses of Better Tj^pe

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 177

In the makeup of a state minimum teachers' salary
schedule, preparation should be stressed, but experience
should not be ignored. The worth of experience is, how-
ever, conditioned on the amount of preparation a teacher
has previously obtained. Accordingly, for the lowest
three grades of elementary school certificates no allow-
ance should be made for experience. In all other cases
the allowance for experience should vary with the amount
of preparation; that is, the highest salary allowance for
experience should go to the best prepared.

A certification system and state minimum teachers'
salary schedule when based on the above considerations
would be, for elementary teachers, approximately as
follows:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATES INITIAL SALARY

ist Grade- — Graduation from a standard

normal school $1,000

2nd Grade — One year in a standard nor-
mal school $ 800

3rd Grade — Graduation from a standard
high school, or four years
beyond elementary school,
and not less than 6 weeks of
professional training $ 80 per mo,

4th Grade — Three years beyond elemen-
tary school, and not less
than 6 weeks of professional
training $ 75 per mo.

178 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CERTLFICATES INITIAL SALARY

5 th Grade — Two years beyond elemen-
tary school, and not less
than 6 weeks of professional
training $ 70 per mo.

6th Grade — One year beyond elemen-
tary school, and not less
than 6 weeks of professional
training $ 65 per mo.

7th Grade — Elementary school, and not
less than 6 weeks of pro-
fessional training $ 60 per mo.

The proposed scheme raises two questions — the prac-
ticability of the present law, which requires at least high
school graduation of all elementary teachers after 1926,
and the practicabiHty of the present $75 per month
minimum salary for all elementary teachers. The law
requiring high school graduation of all elementary teach-
ers after 1926 aimed to stimulate teacher preparation.
It has accomplished much, and largely accounts for the
unprecedented number of Kentucky teachers in school
during the summer of 192 1. But with 23 per cent, of all
elementary teachers now in service on the basis of only
elementary school training, and with 63 per cent, having
had less than high school training, the proposed require-
ments cannot possibly be enforced in 1926, if the schools
are to be kept open. In 56 counties there are no standard
high schools that prospective teachers could attend even

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 179

if they wanted to, and present salaries are not suflicient
to induce them to get the required training.

Ordinarily, $75 per month is too high a salary for the
poorest trained elementary teachers, and it is not enough
to encourage thorough preparation; for a minimum
wage of $75, unrelated to a salary schedule, is too apt to
become the maximum wage. The adoption of a state
minimum teachers' salary schedule such as suggested
above would displace the present minimum of $75 per
month for teachers holding the three lowest grades of
elementary school certificates, but it would hold before
teachers much greater incentives for thorough prepara-
tion.

MORE AND BETTER TEACHER-TRAINESIG SCHOOLS

A sound certification system and higher salaries will
increase the number of well-trained teachers, but Ken-
tucky will never have an adequate supply of professional
teachers unless more and better teacher-training schools
are also created.

TRAINING OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

As stated above, 130 high school teachers are
annually needed to take the place of those who drop out
at the end of each year.^ To supply this demand, the

^This estimate does not take account of the number of qualified teach-
ers needed to take the place of the many unprepared high school teachers
now in service, or of the needed increase in the teaching force of many
high schools.

i8o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

state university turned out, in 1920-1921, 28 qualified
graduates.

The state university under favorable conditions could
easily double, if not quadruple, its output. To enable
the university to do this, as well as to train educational
leaders, such as high school principals, city superinten-
dents, etc., the department of education should be con-
verted into a college of education, on the same plane as
the college of arts and sciences, the college of engineering,
and the college of agriculture. It should, hke them, have
its own dean, its own budget, its own courses of study,
its own professors, and should enroll and control its own
students. In this college should be centered not only
the usual work in professional education, but also work
in the trades, in home economics, and in agriculture sub-
sidized under the Smith-Hughes law. To provide a
dean, the necessary increase in faculty, and to strengthen
the practice schools, both at the university and at Pica-
dome on the edge of Lexington, would require an increase
over present expenditures of about $25,000 annually.

In a survey of high school teacher-training resources,
the private colleges of the state should also be included.
These private colleges, or, rather, those belonging to the
Association of Kentucky Colleges, graduated, in 1920-
192 1, 89 persons who had pursued some professional high
school courses. Some of these graduates will undoubt-
edly enter private high schools, but the majority will
probably find their way into public high schools. At all
events, the state university and the private colleges are

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS i8i

now producing annually 1 1 7 high school teachers of fairly-
acceptable preparation, and the total annual output is
rapidly increasing.

Nor are the private junior colleges to be ignored. For
some years it will be necessary, as pointed out above, to
certificate high school teachers who have had only two
years of college work, including professional courses.
Consequently, the several junior colleges of the state can
render for the time being an important service in training
the liigh school teacher of lower grade.

The state has, therefore, in prospect a fair supply of
high school teachers, provided the educational work of
the university is strengthened, and both university and
private college students are encouraged to prepare for
high school teaching through the adoption of a sound
certification system carrying with it an appropriate
teachers' salary schedule.

TRAINING OF ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

The prospect of obtaining an adequate supply of well-
trained elementary teachers is not so bright. The state
maintains two schools for the training of white elementary
teachers — the Eastern State Normal School at Richmond
and the Western State Normal School at BowHng Green.
As stated above, approximately 1450 elementary teach-
ers are needed annually to take the place of those who
quit teaching each year.^ To meet this demand, the two

^The estimate does not take account of the number needed to displace
gradually the 2,108 now in service who have never advanced beyond the

I»2

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

state normal schools graduated from their advanced
courses in 1920-192 1, 114 prospective teachers, a half of
whom were headed for high school positions.

Educational conditions are now such that with proper
reorganization and concentration of resources, these two
schools can do more for the elementary schools than they
have heretofore been able to do. But if they are to
accompHsh this large work, their entrance requirements
should be raised so as to exclude all pupils who have not
completed the elementary school. Students who merely
want a high school education should also be excluded,
for these institutions are teacher-training schools, not
high schools and not colleges. The present separate and
disjoined courses — the elementary, the intermediate, the
advanced — should be abandoned. For elementary school
entrants, there should be developed a single unified course,
covering five years of forty weeks each, with opportu-
nities in the last year or two to speciaHze in primary,
intermediate, and grammar grade work. For high school
entrants, there should be developed a two-year course,
with similar opportunities for specialization, in great part
independent of the courses for elementary school entrants.

But these two normal schools, when fully developed,
will together probably not graduate, in any one year,
more than 400 well-trained teachers. At that rate, it
would take the output of seven such fully developed nor-

elementary school, or to displace gradually the 3,679 who have had some
high school work but less than a full high school course, nor does it con-
sider expansion due to increased population.

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 183

mal schools merely to fill the places of teachers who
annually leave the service. To establish five new state
normal schools atone stroke would be ill advised, but the
next general assembly should make a beginning by estab-
lishing at least one, and, preferably two.

The new schools should be put where they will do the
most good. One should probably be located in the Big
Sandy Valley, the other in the western part of the state,
east of the Tennessee River. Under no circumstances
should they at the outset be standard normal schools.
They should be designed to prepare teachers for the rural
schools of the respective sections. A simple, single course
of study not more than three years in length for elemen-
tary school entrants would for the present suffice; but the
course should be thorough as far as it goes and should
from first to last be controlled by the needs of rural school
teachers. A graduate desiring to advance further should
be admitted at Richmond or Bowling Green, and should
be able to complete an advanced course in two years.

All high school graduates in the territory of these new
schools should go to Richmond or Bowling Green. In
turn, Richmond and BowKng Green should exclude all
students coming from the fields of the new schools who
have had less than a full high school course. This ar-
rangement would work a double benefit. It would en-
able the new schools to keep to a simple, rural school
course. On the other hand, it would relieve the two
older schools of a part of their large enrollment of pupils
entering directly from the elementary school, increase the

i84 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

proportion of high school entrants, and enable them to
devote their resources more exclusively to advanced ele-
mentary teacher training.

In both the eastern and western sections, there may
be a private school, favorably located, which the board
of management would gladly turn over to the state for
normal school purposes. In that event, the first cost of
establishing these two new schools would be small. If
they must be built new from the ground up, it will prob-
ably require not less than $150,000 each for buildings
and $30,000 each annually for maintenance and opera-
tion.

Such normal schools as Kentucky may estabhsh and
maintain at this time cannot reach the great mass of rural
teachers now in service, or the mass of prospective rural
teachers. To reach these and to give them at least some
training, it will be necessary for Kentucky, Hke other
states, to employ temporary means of teacher training,
such as county summer schools for teachers and teacher-
training departments in high schools.

County summer schools for teachers were introduced
in Kentucky in the summer of 192 1, Avith great success.
They should not only be continued, but increased in num-
ber. To avoid confusion in standards and organization,
courses of study and methods of instruction, the control
of these summer schools should be vested in the state
board of education. This is especially necessary since
credit on certificates should be given for all work com-
pleted in them. The state board of education should

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 185

also be furnished with a fund sufficient to enable it, in
cooperation with county school authorities, to establish
such a school wherever needed, without cost to the teach-
ers attending. The cost to the state of such a school
will probably never exceed $900 per annum. In most
cases it will not exceed $450, as counties will gladly share
the expense with the state.

If the county summer school is made an estabUshed
part of the state's teacher-training facilities, the annual
county institute of not more than six days should be abol-
ished. It no longer serves a useful purpose. The aban-
donment of the county institute should, however, not
prevent the county superintendent from calling his
teachers together from time to time for conference and
instruction.

Most Kentucky rural high schools are now too small to
make profitable the establishment in them of teacher-
training departments. There are, however, a few where
this could be done to advantage. These departments
would enable rural boys and girls who expect to teach
to spend half time in their third and fourth years in
work designed to fit them for rural school teaching.^ Like
the county summer schools for teachers, high school train-
ing departments should be under the control of the state
board of education. Such a department costs approxi-

^See a study entitled " Teacher Training Departments in Minnesota
High Schools" published by the General Education Board, 61 Broadway,
New York, and sent free on application.

i86 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

mately $2,500 per year. County boards of education
usually provide the needed classrooms, and divide the
expense of maintenance with the state.

For the conduct of county summer schools and the
establishment of high school teacher-training depart-
ments, the next general assembly should appropriate
$50,000 for each of the next two years. No other appro-
priation of equal amount will reach so many rural teachers
and affect favorably so many rural children.

TRAINING OF COLORED TEACHERS

The problems facing the State Normal and Industrial
Institute at Frankfort are somewhat similar to those
facing Richmond and Bowling Green. The time has
come for this school to exclude all pupils who have not
completed the elementary school. As there are now
only 28 public high schools for colored children in the
state, a high school course should be maintained for
pupils not expecting to teach. But pupils expecting to
teach should not be required as now to complete a three-
year classical high school course before being admitted to
the regular normal school course. For such elementary
school entrants, there should be outHned a single, con-
tinuous five- or six-year course determined entirely by
the needs of elementary school teachers. A separate
teacher-training course should also be maintained for high
school entrants. To make the needed changes in courses
of study for teachers, to provide more extensive practice
school opportunities, and to strengthen the faculty which

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 187

is now inadequate, will require an increased annual
appropriation for current maintenance and operation of
not less than $20,000.

The situation at the West Kentucky Industrial College
at Paducah is different. Outside the farm recently pur-
chased, the assets of the West Kentucky Industrial Col-
lege consist of a small lot and a three-story brick building.
The building is poorly constructed and of the cheapest
material. The basement is used for a kitchen and dining
room; the first floor for the principal's offices and class-
rooms; the second floor for the principal's home and class-
rooms; and the third floor for a girls' dormitory. Its
wooden joists and floors, and its pine and beaver board
stairways and partitions, constitute a fire hazard of the
most dangerous sort.

The program advertised covers the eight grades of
the elementary school, a three-year high school course, a
three-year normal school course based on a three-year
high school course, a business course of indefinite length,
and miscellaneous courses in pubKc school music and
piano. The normal school course as such is a myth.
Such teacher training as is undertaken consists chiefly
of review courses and a summer school for teachers. The
total enrollment for the spring term 1920-192 1 was, ele-
mentary grades, 100; high school grades, 48.

The school is managed almost as if it were a private
enterprise. A tuition fee of $8 per term is charged, with
registration and laboratory fees. The principal also
sohcits private subscriptions and apparently has little

i88 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

appreciation of his relations to the state. The ac-
counts and records of the school are in a deplorable con-
dition.

This school should be abandoned in favor of a new
school to be estabhshed near the western center of colored
population at a probable cost of $100,000 for building,
and $20,000 per year for current expenses. If a new
school is not established, the state should stop its appro-
priation to the West Kentucky Industrial College, sell
the farm, and return the property originally deeded to
the state to its former owner, the principal of the school.

ADMINISTRATION OF TEACHER-TRAINING SCHOOLS

Teacher-training schools are an indispensable part of a
public school system, and they should be under the same
general management as the public schools themselves — a
properly constituted state board of education.

Kentucky recognizes the necessity of this central con-
trol. The state superintendent is chairman of the man-
aging boards of the two white normal schools, also chair-
man of the managing board of the colored normal school
at Frankfort. It remains to make this central control
more direct and complete. It may not be practicable at
this time to bring the Eastern and Western State Nor-
mal Schools under the control of the state board of
education, but the management of the colored normal
schools and such new normal schools as may be estab-
lished should be brought under its control. Each school
should still have its own president, but he should be ap-

Main Building and Practice School of West Kentucky Industrial College

BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 189

pointed by and be responsible to the state board of edu-
cation.

To bring all normal schools under a single management
will give unity to all state teacher-training work, whether
in normal schools, county summer schools for teachers,
or high school training departments; it will keep each
school to the task for which it was estabhshed, relieve
these institutions from local interference which all too
often leads them into ill-advised fields of endeavor, and
prevent unnecessary duplication and unprofitable rivalry.

SUMMARY

The recommendations made in this chapter may seem
drastic; but this is due to the fact that the present situa-
tion is hopelessly confused. As a matter of fact, the
above suggestions are based on successful experience in
other states and simply adapt to Kentucky measures
already taken elsewhere. Recent sessions of the North
Carolina legislature have, for example, put through a pro-
gram similar to the one outhned for Kentucky. Separ-
ate boards for the smaller normal schools were aboHshed,
a new certification system and state teachers' salary
schedule adopted, and teacher -training facilities increas-
ed. Within the last six years Maryland has done like-
wise. What these states have done, Kentucky can do.

XIIL BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT

EDUCATIONAL progress in Kentucky is abso-
lutely dependent on increased financial support.
More money is needed for administration and
supervision, more money for grounds, buildings, and
equipment, more money for teachers and teacher- training
institutions. In short, practically every improvement
needed involves increased outlay.

INCREASED APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE GENERAL
TREASURY

Because of constitutional Kmitations and appellate
court decisions, certain of the proposed improvements,
such as additional teacher-training facihties, can only be
financed through appropriations by the general assembly
from the general treasury.

To strengthen present teacher-training institutions and
to provide additional teacher-training facihties impera-
tively needed, the general assembly of 1922 should appro-
priate for new buildings, grounds, and equipment not less
than $650,000. , This appropriation should be distributed
approximately as foUows:

$125,000 each to the Eastern Kentucky and Western
Kentucky State Normal Schools;

190

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 191

$150,000 each for two new normal schools for white
teachers, to be located preferably in the eastern and
western sections of the state; and

$100,000 for a new normal school for the training of
colored teachers, to be located in the center of Negro
population in the western part of the state.

The general assembly of 1922 should also appropriate,
in addition to present appropriations, for the current
maintenance and operation of teacher-training institu-
tions, not less than $175,000 annually, to be distributed
about as follows:

$25,000 for enlarging and improving the teacher-train-
ing work of the state university;

$30,000 each for maintaining and operating the two
new normal schools for white teachers;

$50,000 to enable the state to establish, in cooperation
with the counties, summer training schools for teachers,
and to establish teacher-training departments in county
high schools;

$20,000 for enlarging and improving the work of
the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute, located
at Frankfort; and

$20,000 for the current expenses of the new state
normal school for colored teachers, to be established.

These appropriations will not provide adequately for
the training of teachers. At no distant date, additional
provisions will be required for the training of high school
teachers, and from four to six additional institutions
will be required for the training of elementary teachers

192 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

Nevertheless, the appropriations suggested will meet the
most pressing teacher-training needs, and that is all that
can be attempted at this time.

INCREASED STATE AND LOCAL SCHOOL SUPPORT

Other improvements, such as better school grounds,
buildings, and equipment, better trained teachers,
longer school term, can be financed only through the
state common school fund and local taxation. How
much these respective funds will need to be increased to
provide Kentucky with satisfactory schools, no one can
tell. But we can estimate approximately how much
they will have to be increased to raise Kentucky school
expenditures up to the country-wide average. In view
of its traditions, its wealth, and the character of its
people, Kentucky cannot possibly be content with less.

Rural school expenditures were, in 1920-1921, ap-
proximately $5,000,000. To bring these up to the coun-
try-wide average will call for an annual expenditure of
$10,000,000, or an increase of $5,000,000, The state
should at least divide with the counties the expense
that has to be incurred to provide better schools. To
do so would call for an addition to the common school
fund of approximately $2,500,000 for rural school pur-
poses alone. Similarly, to bring the city and graded
school expenditures up to the country-wide city aver-
age will require an annual expenditure of $6,650,000, or
an increase over present expenditures of $1,650,000.
Should the state bear the same proportion of this in-

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 193

crease as is proposed for the counties, this will involve
increasing the common school fund by $825,000, or a
total increase for both cities and counties of $3,325,000.
If the state school fund should thus be practically
doubled, under the present method of distribution, ap-
proximately $1,050,000 will go to the cities and graded
school districts instead of $825,000. Accordingly, if they
did their full share, the expenditures of cities and graded
school districts would exceed somewhat the country-wide
city average, whereas the counties, owing to the de-
creased proportion of the increase in the common school
fund going to them, would, even if they did their full
share, fall slightly short of the country-wide rural aver-
age.

If the counties are to do their part in raising rural
school expenditures to the country- wide rural average,
county school taxes wiU need to be increased on the
average at least 50 per cent. Part of this increase should
be made mandatory, part of it should be left optional
with the counties. To this end, the present mandatory
county school tax of 25 cents on each $100 value of
assessed property should be raised to 35 cents for teach-
ers alone, and the maximum which a county board of
education may levy for all purposes should be raised to
$1.00.

To increase the mandatory county school tax levy
to 35 cents for teachers will in many instances scarcely
crystallize present practice. Thirty-nine counties now
levy for all purposes 50 cents, ten, 45 cents, and twenty-

194 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

six, 40 cents. A few of the less favored counties still
think, they are too poor to levy a reasonable school tax,
but the lower tax rate is often found in wealthy counties,
and these same wealthy counties are content with poor
schools and a short school term. If a 35-cent school tax
rate for teachers alone becomes mandatory, then the
standard school term should be made not less than 180
days or 9 months, exclusive of holidays. But no county
should be compelled to levy a school tax in excess of 35
cents for teachers to maintain a term of this length.
Such legislation would, however, provide a standard
school term — a term of not less than 9 months — ^in
probably 40 counties.

On the other hand, in approximately 80 counties a
35-cent school tax for teachers will not provide a standard
school term. In some counties it will scarcely suffice
for a six months' term ; in others, for only seven months,
and in still others for eight months. Therefore, when a
county levies a 35-cent school tax for teachers, it would
be well if the state could step in and supplement local
funds to the extent needed to provide the children of the
county with a school term of standard length. The con-
stitution prevents any such equaHzation of educational
opportunities. Consequently, even if the mandatory
county school tax is raised to 35 cents for teachers,
many counties will continue to have a short school
term.

To some persons an optional maximum county school
tax rate of $1 .00 may seem high. But there is probably

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT

195

not a county in the state that can maintain schools of
good standard on a lower rate. Moreover, county school
boards will not as a rule levy a higher optional school tax
than public sentiment will sustain. To provide an op-
tional school tax levy between 35 cents and $1.00 will
give progressive counties a chance to forge ahead, and
thus other counties will be stimulated to support their
schools more generously.

To bring their school expenditures up to the country-
wide city average, it will be necessary for cities and
graded districts to increase their school taxes, on the
average, approximately one-sixth. Third and fourth
class cities now have ample taxing power to enable them
to raise the needed increased revenues. First and second
class cities and graded school districts should be sim-
ilarly empowered. In most instances pubHc sentiment
is strong enough to sustain the higher levies.

Even if the state should take as its immediate ob-
jective raising the usual school expenditures up to the
country- wide rural average, and city and graded school
expenditures to the country- wide city average, it would
not be advisable, even if it were possible, to double
the state common school fund at one stroke, or to double
immediately the average county school tax, or to in-
crease the average of city and graded school taxes too
abruptly. Except as additional funds are needed to
lengthen the school term and to employ better trained
teachers, superintendents, and supervisors, too sudden
an increase in school revenues would be unfortunate.

196 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

USE OF TEN PER CENT. DEDUCTION

The approval by the people of the second constitu-
tional amendment now before them will free annually
about $450,000, which can be apportioned without re-
gard to school population. Unquestionably, this liber-
ated fund should be used to do away, so far as possible,
with existing educational inequalities.

Educational inequahties arise chiefly from differences
in leadership as exercised by superintendents and super-
visors, differences in school grounds, buildings, and equip-
ment, differences in the training of the teachers employed,
differences in length of term, and differences in the kind
and grade of schools provided, according as children have
access to both elementary and high schools or to ele-
mentary schools only. A fund many times larger than
that Kberated by the proposed 10 per cent, deduction
from the common school fund would be required to
ehminate all the inequahties arising from differences
in these factors. It is therefore a question of choosing
the particular inequahties to eradicate with the funds
available.

Of all existing inequahties, no others are so significant
as differences in length of term, in the training of the
teachers employed, and in high school opportunities.
Therefore, two-thirds of the funds available can best
be used to equahze length of school term, if possible up
to seven months, and to equahze the salaries and the
training of the teachers employed. The remainder can

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 197

best be used to equalize high school opportunities to
the point of estabUshing one standard rural high
school in each county of the state. These liberated
funds can be used, of course, in the light of past
appellate court decisions, only for paying teachers'
salaries.

The conditions on which the several counties may
participate in the distribution of these hberated funds
should be as follows: Each county must levy at least a
50-cent county school tax. Of this, not less than 35 cents
should be set aside for teachers' salaries. Having done
this, each "county should then participate according to
its needs and the amount of the liberated fund available,
provided it is still unable to maintain the legal minimum
term, pay its teachers the legal minimum wage, and
maintain at least one standard rural high school. But
no county should participate to the extent of providing
an elementary school term longer than seven months,
or salaries above the state standard, or more than one
standard rural high school. It should also be provided
that all unexpended portions of this Hberated fund be
covered at the end of each school year into the common
school fund.

Even with a 50-cent county school levy, 35 cents of
which is set aside for teachers, about 40 counties will not
be able to provide a school term in excess of six months.
What it will cost to extend the term in these 40 counties
to seven months, thus making a seven months' term
common throughout the state, cannot be exactly stated.

igS PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

It would probably cost about $300,000. The exact cost
to the state will ultimately depend on the amount avail-
able in each county from a 50-cent school levy, when 35
cents is set aside for teachers' salaries, and on the num-
ber, training, and experience of the teachers employed.
For the salaries paid teachers will depend on the state
certification system and the state teachers' salary sched-
ule finally adopted. But whatever the cost, this is,
we believe, the best use that can be made of the first
two-thirds of the funds Hberated, not only because length
of school term appears at present from all data in hand
to be the most important factor in determining the school
achievements of children, but also for the following ad-
ditional reason:

In a state having a sound certification system, and
a sound teachers' salary schedule, such as Kentucky
should adopt, the poorest prepared and least experienced
teacher would get the lowest salary, and the best trained
and most experienced teacher, the highest salary. Under
these conditions, counties having only a six months'
term cannot employ as well trained teachers as coun-
ties having a standard or nine months' term, or even as
counties having a seven or eight months' term. Such
counties cannot pay the salaries well-trained teachers
are entitled to, and well-trained and experienced teachers
will not accept six months' appointments. In general,
the county having the shortest term has the poorest
trained and the least experienced teachers. Therefore,
to extend the school term to seven months in all less fa-

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 199

vored counties will place these counties on an equal foot-
ing in the employment of teachers with all other coun-
ties having a seven months' term. They will thus be
able, through the aid of the state, to employ somewhat
better prepared and more experienced teachers, who, in
turn, will react favorably on the classroom work in these
less favored counties. Hence, to equalize the length
of the school term is also a step toward equalizing the
quaHty of instruction. Likewise, a longer term and
higher salaries will encourage the young people of these
less favored counties to prepare themselves more thor-
oughly for teaching.

It is equally impossible to state what it will cost to pro-
vide one standard rural high school in each of the 56
counties that either have no high school at all or no
high school of standard grade. A 50-cent county tax
levy will enable some of these counties, without special
state aid, to improve their high schools. In others the
state will probably not find it necessary to contribute
more than a half of the instructional cost, while in a few
counties it will be necessary to contribute for a time most
of the cost.

The total instructional cost of a small standard rural
high school is approximately $6,800, from which may be
deducted $1,000 received from Smith-Hughes funds. ^

'This estimate provides for three teachers of the usual high school
studies, and for two teachers for home economics, agriculture, and rural
science.

200 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

This leaves the local cost for teachers' salaries approxi-
mately $5,800. Even if the state were called on to con-
tribute, on the average, one-half of this amount, or
$2,900, it would be able, with $150,000 at its command,
to assist not less than 52 counties, and probably more.
A third of the proposed 10 per cent, deduction will,
therefore, go a long way toward equahzing high school
opportunities up to at least one standard rural high
school in each county of the state. To estabhsh even a
single standard rural high school in each of the less fa-
vored counties will do much to stimulate the mental Hfe
of these communities, and will sooner or later lead to
the estabhshment of still other high schools by the people
themselves; without at least one such high school in
each county, the improvement of their teachers will be
slow indeed.

As the common school fund increases, the amount
liberated under a 10 per cent, deduction will increase
correspondingly. Even this increased amount will prob-
ably never be sufficient to equalize entirely the length of
school term and high school opportunities. A sum much
larger would be necessary to eradicate many other in-
equaUties, such, for example, as differences in adminis-
trative and supervisory efficiency, and differences in
the training of the teachers employed. Nevertheless,
to reduce at this time, even to a hmited extent, existing
inequahties in school opportunities is simple justice and
will confer inestimable benefits on the rural children of
the less favored counties. But nothing at all can be

BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 201

done because the people failed to ratify Constitutional
Amendment Number Two.

SCHOOL BUDGETS AND SCHOOL ACCOUNTING

Finally, the ordinary increases in public expenditures,
to say nothing of the other necessary increases, require
greater care in the preparation of school budgets. Cities
have given considerable attention to their school bud-
gets, and the law of 1920 requires a county school bud-
get; but many cities, most graded school districts, and
the state department of education have never had bud-
gets. Aside from specific appropriations for the state
superintendent's salary and for clerical hire, the amount
of the remaining expenses of the department is unde-
termined, being carried in an open account.

In addition to providing the state department of edu-
cation with inspectors to supervise the making of budgets,
the accounting and the business methods of local boards
of education, the auditor of pubHc accounts should be
furnished with such inspectors as will enable him to
keep close watch on the integrity with which public school
funds are handled. Such supervision of financial re-
sponsibilities, and of the accounting and business meth-
ods of boards of education, will save annually thousands
of dollars of public funds now lost through petty graft
and inefficiency, correspondingly reduce the cost of
the schools, and greatly increase the confidence of the
people in their management.

202 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENTUCKY

The state will perhaps be startled by the pre-
ceding suggestions, all involving greater expenditures.
But let us pause to consider. The tide of prosperity
does not rise in countries that pay Uttle for education,
it rises in those that pay much. A vigorous and indus-
trious population does not seek a state which has poor
schools ; it seeks a state which has good schools. Having '
so far done less than it should, and less than it could af-
ford, let Kentucky by a supreme effort now do at least
what it can afford. The returns will be prompt and
large. Such action is recommended not only by states-
manship, but by enlightened selfishness, if one must have
a lower justification.

APPENDIX

TABLE I
Training of White Elementary Teachers

TRAINING

RURAL 1

GRADED

CITY

TOTAL

No.

%

No.

%
10.3

No.

%

No.

%

Elementary Schcx)l Only .
Less than full High School

1,975

29.9

79

54

3.1

2,108

23 1

3.095

46.9

304

39.8

280

lb.9

3,679

40.3

Full High School . . .

1,156

17.5

244

31.9

382

21.6

1,782

19.5

Above High School

1 year

2 years

209

3.2

75

9.8

347

19.7

631

6.9

112

1.7

40

fa.2

449

25.4

601

6.6

3 years

30

.b

14

1.8

151

8.5

195

?.?.

4 years or more

19

.3

9

1.2

102

5.8

130

1.4

Total

6,596

100

765

100

1,765

100

9,126

100

TABLE II
Training of White High School Teachers

TRAINING

RURAL

graded

CITY

TOTAL

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

Elementary School Only.

45

10.2

23

5.3

16

2.8

84

58

Less than full High School

108

24.4

63

14.6

42

7.4

213

14.8

Full High School . . .

116

26.3

90

20.8

42

7.4

248

17.2

Above High School

1 year

47

10.6

67

15.5

58

10.2

172

11.9

2 years

. 46

10.4

82

18.9

78

13.7

206

14,3

3 years

38

8.6

49

11.3

102

18,0

189

131

4 years or more

42

9.5

59

13.6

230

40.5

331

22.9

ToUl

442

100

433

100

568

100

1,443

100

TABLE III
Training of Colored Teachers

Elementary School Only .
Less than full High School
Full High School . . .
Above High School

1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years or more

Total

RURAL

CITY

TOT/

No.

%

No.

%

No.

73

226
154

87
70
18
27

11.1
34.5
23.5

13.3
10.7
2.8
4.1

9
72
86

63

129

57

72

1.8
14.8
17.6

12.9
26.4
11.7
14,8

82
298
240

150

199

75

99

655

100

488

100

1,143

100

203

!-< y

M

H U

►J

ffl

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204

KIND OF
SCHOOL

White

1 Teacher .

Sub-district
Graded .

2 Teacher .
Sub-district
Graded .

3 Teacher .
Sub-district
Graded .

4 Teacher .
Sub district
Graded .

5 Teacher .
Sub-district
Graded .

6 Teacher or more
Sub-district
Graded .

4 Teacher or more

Sub-district an(

Graded

Citv . .

4th Class

3d Class

2d Class.

LexinRton

Newport

Paducah

Negro

Sub-district

City . .

TABLE V
Number and Ages of Pupils Tested and the Average Length of the School Year in the Various Schools in Which Tests Were Given

number of pupils tested 1

MEDIAN AGES OF PUPILS TESTED

AVERAGE

LENGTH

OF

school

YEAR IN
DAYS

•
kind of

Fifth Grade |

Seventh Grade 1

Eighth Grade |

Fifth i3rade |

Seventh Grade

Eighth Grade

1st
half

2d
half

Total

1st
half

2d

half

Total

1st
half

2d
half

Total

1st
half

2d

hfilf

Total

1st
half

2d

half

Total

1st
half

2d
half

Total

White

1 Teacher . .

Sub-district . .
Graded .

2 Teacher . . .
Sub-district
Graded . . .

3 Teacher . . .
Sub-district . .
Graded . . .

4 Teacher . . .

yrs. mos.

yrs. jmos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

yrs. mos.

1,550

925

472

12—7

14—4

14—11

129

1,540
10

909
16

472

12—7
11—7

14—4
14—7

14—11

129
131

170

137

100

12—1

14—1

15-0

142

139
31

204

112
25
147

84
16
175

12—2
11—9
12—2

14—4
13—1
13—10

14—9
15—3
14—10

143
138
159

129
75

88
59

109
66

12—4
11—10

14—0
13—7

15—0
14—7

156
163

190

152

138

11-8

13—4

14—8

167

70

65

11—7

13—5

14—10

166

99

82

73

11—9

13—3

14—7

167

5 Teacher . . .

117

79

65

11—8

13—8

14—9

170

Sub-district .

117
134
■ 30
104

79

65

11—8

13—8

14—9

170

75

11—7

13—5

14-0

178

6 Teacher or more

18

12—3

14—1

13—7

160

Sub-district.
Graded . . .

92

57

11—5

13—3

14—4

180

4 Teacher or more

Sub-district and

441
2,024
479
634
911
317
324
270

345
1,647
402
487
758
279
224
255

278

11—8

13—5

14—7

171

Graded . .
Cily ....

4th Class . .

3d Class . .

2d Class. . .
l^xington
Newport .

1,353
445
463
445
121
174
150

671
34
171
466
196
150
120

1,182
364
404
414
157
124
133

465
38
83
344
122
100
122

1,004
339
340
325
148
76
101

307
11
48

248
81
94
73

1,311
350
388
573
229
170
174

11—0
11—0
11—0
11—0
11—8
11—0
10—7

11—8
12—1
11—6
11—8
12—4
11—1
11-5

11—3
11—1
11—3
11—5
12-0
11—0
10—11

12—10

12—11

12—10

12—10

13—1

12—9

12—8

13—5

13—5

13—10

13—4

13—7

13—0

13—2

13-0
12—11
12—11
13—1
13—4
12—9
12—11

13—10
13—10
13—9
13—9
13—10
13—8
13—9

14—2
15—2
14—6
14—2
14—7
13—7
14—0

13—10
13—10
13—10
13—11
14—2
13—7
13—9

193

191
186
200

Negro
Sub-district .
City ....

269

101

141
370

198

45

66
243

179

46

59
225

12—6

12—9

12-11
12—6

13—10

1 14—10
14—4 1 13—11

14—10

15—3

15—9
14—10

137
193

<
2

3

>

4)
•D

2

o

c

J5

3

e2

50.8
46.3

5j

S- (ON

SI 5j S8

•^"s

1
o

Total

39.1
38.2
39.1

40.9

CO ^

.-HJ5 1

<
z

<
U

X
H
K

i

o

c
>

2

00 rt CO

■<*

rt Cvj rt

Tj< Tj< tT

Grade norms

III B 33.7 VI B 50.9
A 37.3 A 53.7

IV B 39.6 VII B 56.0
A 41.8 A 58.3

V B 44.9 VIII B 59.6
A 48.0 A 60.9

SI

o ^

1> 00

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inin woOTOoooo-^oocMyj tDoicncv] ocoa-.c^coi£!t>o to^
t>r-: oiod-*oit>codt-^(Nd dci^co .-Jiri^^'dodTTin int^
TtTj< -3' -^ in ■* ■* m in Ti- in m ioininin in in in in in in in tn ■^•<t

Wj3

o^tocoinocviin u3

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^i2 1 oot>co^ino'* lo
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SI

^cMooocopqto in
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1st
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50.7
51.2
50.8
50.1
52.6
51.3
46.1

44.4

V

2
a

5

E

qqoq.-HC^3incoqoqq-Ht^cq iq-*in<c toqq^oqcvjinco coco
t^c^t>o6odc>odddoddodod oo'-Hd-^ dco-^oicvidcvio) -"a-r-^
CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO ■* CO CO CO CO co'^'*'* co^^-^^^-^co coco

,^1 coqt>Ln'.CMcoq

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X
[z.

o

-

Sub-district and

Graded

City

4th class . . .
3d class ....
2d class ....

Lexington

Newport .

Paducah

Sub-district .

City

White

1 Teacher . .
Sub-district .
Graded . .

2 Teacher . .
Sub-district .
Graded . .

3 Teacher . .
Sub-district .
Graded

a leacner .
Sub-district .
Graded

5 Teacher .
Sub-district .
Graded . .

6 Teacher or more
Sub-district .
Graded

4 Teacher or more

205

2o6

APPENDIX

TABLE VII

Reading and Addition Scores of 13 Year Old Pupils in One-Teacher Schools
AND IN City Elementary Schools

grade

number of 13-
year OLD PUPILS
tested IN

percentage of

13 YEAR OLD
PUPILS IN DIF-
FERENT GRADES
IN

READING SCORES
IN

ADDITION
SCORES IN

I

Teacher
Schools

City
Schools

1

Teacher
Schools

City
Schools

1

Teacher
Schools

City
Schools

1

Teacher
Schools

City
Schools

3

A

5
6

7
8

56
136
269
122
178

72

46
89
216
261
436
455

6.7
16.3
32.3
14.6
21.4

8.7

3.0
5.9

14.4
17.4
29.0
30.3

25.7
31.1
37.4
38.9
43.7
48.3

31.6
37.1
40.9
46.6
50.5
56.0

5.5

7.8

9.3

10.2

12.0

13.9

8.0
10.3
12.6
13.9
15.3
16.5

Total

833

1,503

100.0

100.0

38.1

48.8

8.9

14.4

o

a

o
H

SI

Eg

" (0

a

oooo 00 00 ^o o N f~ -"I" 05 c^ m irtinino)
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(O t- » N •^ CO »-l Tf05

lo ic Tf CO d c»^ d cod

en oco -loo)
tf> -cot-^ -odd

■* 00 00 CO •* tC 10

in Lo Tt d to d CO

incoO'-iCMt^^O MO".

to-^c^joic^pjcod cod

oocoocqooo
c^q c»j d •* d d -<

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• ■ • o^j:

c0T}>m(Orj«O 1^2

207

©J3i*

208

APPENDIX

TABLE IX
Summary of Elementary School Spelling Scoresi in Kentucky

KENTUCKY

KIND OF

Fifth Grade

Seventh Grade

Eighth Grade

SCHOOL

1st
half

2d
half

Total

1st
half

2d
half

Total

1st
half

2d
half

Total

White

1 Teacher . . .

48.2

32.7

44.6

Sub-district .

48.3

32.6

44.6

Graded

39.5

36.8

2 Teacher . . .

50.6

37.4

44.1

Sub-d4strict .

50.7

38.5

40.8

Graded . . .

50.0

32.6

61.6

3 Teacher . . .

55.8

31.0

47.8

Sub-district .

52.3

29.5

43.1

Graded . . .

61.9

33.2

55.6

4 Teacher . . .

55.3

37.6

51.9

Sub-district .

52.0'

29.5

45.9

Graded . . .

58.4

44.6

57.3

5 Teacher . . .

52.5

37.9

52.7

Sub-district .

Graded . . .

52.5

37.9

52.7

6 Teacher or more .

71.1

41.1

51.7

Sub-district .

71.3

28.2

38.6

Graded . . .

71.0

44.2

55.9

4 Teacher or more

Sub-district and

Graded .

59.4

38.8

52.0

City

64.0

68.4

65.5

42.6

49.0

44.4

61.1

62.7

61.4

4th Class . . .

66.9

69.7

67.1

44.1

54.6

45.1

61.7

61.2

61.7

3d Class . . .

66.0

64.3

65.5

47.3

46.6

47.2

65.0

66.9

65.2

2d Class . . .

59.0

69.8

64.5

36.8

48.9

42.3

56.3

61.8

58.7

Lexington .

73.8

79.8

77.5

47.3

61.1

53.3

61.7

61.7

Newport

59.9

68.0

63.7

37.5

53.9

44.8

63.1

74.0

69.1

Paducah

46.1

56.4

50.7

21.8

32.5

26.9

45.1

45.8

45.4

Negro

Sub-district .

38.9

23.7

38.7

City ....

45.2

61.3

49.6

31.4

40.1

33.0

42.2

51.7

44.1

Grade norms

73.0

58.0

73.0

iWords taken from Ashbaugh-Iowa Spelling Scale.

<

2

3
>

o

c

V

>

:3

e2

13.6
14.8
14.4

in

SI

iri irt

1

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11.2
11.2
10.2

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i

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Cvj CJ CO

■*

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Grade norms

III 9.5

IV 12.3
V 13.7

VI 15.4
VII 15.8(?)
VIII 17.0

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KIND OF SCHOOL

OF Time

D 20 MONTHS

-ddi-
ion
md
ub-
:ac-
ion

Kentucky

Rural High.

City High .

2d class .

3d "

4th "

North Carolina

Rural High .

Small City High

Large City High

Virginia

Rural High.

City High .

Hotz Standard

P-4
5.5

7.1
B.3

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

5.5
6.5

6.4
6.7

6.0
5.7
5.8

FROM 21 TO 24 MONTHS

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

24

24

10
26

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

5.8

5.8

5.7
4.4

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

5.9

5.9

5.0
6.3

TABLE XV
Summary of Algebra Scores of High School Pupils Who Have Studied Algebra Varying Lengths of Time

FROM 3 TO 5 MONTHS

FROM 6 TO 8 MONTHS

FROM 9 TO 10 MONTHS

FROM 11 TO 14 MONTHS

FROM 15 TO 20 MONTHS

FROM 21 TO 24 MONTHS

KIND OF SCHOOL

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Num-
ber
of

Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Num-
ber
of
Pupils
Tested

Addi-
tion
and
Sub-
trac-
tion

Equa-
tion
and
For-
mula

Kentucky
Rural High
City High
2d class
3d ••
4th "
North Carolin
Rural High
Small City
Large City
Virginia
Rural High
City High
Hotz Standard

a

^ig

Hig

h
h

430
396
70
71
255

152
49
179

3.6

4.4
4.6
4.5
4.3

3.3
2.9
3.6

3.4
5.0

4.2
4.9
5.9
5.0

4.7

3.2
3.1
3.3

3.7
4.9

11
40
25
15

130
16
179

3.8
5.0
4.2
5.5

3.7
5.4
3.9

5.2
5.6
6.8

4.8
6.0
5.9
6.1

4.2
2.8
4.5

4.6
6.1
7.1

32
103
103

60
78

3.8
6.8
6.8

4.5
3.9

5.9
5.0
7.9

4.8
6.4
6.4

4.7
1.5

5.8
5.1
7.8

354
262

66
196

154
109
337

5.5
5.8

5.2
6.2

4.9
4.3
5.4

5.3
6.5

5.9
6.6

4.9
5.1
5.5

84
180

81
99

95

108
70

5.4
6.5

7.1
6.3

5.6
4.8
5.2

5.5
6.5

6.4
6.7

6.0
5.7
5.8

24

24

10
26

5.8

5.8

5.7
4.4

5.9

5.9

5.0
6.3

APPENDIX

213

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